UC-NRLF 


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The  Radicalism  of  Shelley 
and  Its  Sources 


BY 

DANIEL  J.  MacDONALD,  Ph.  D. 


A  DISSERTATION 

Submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  of  the  Catholic 

University  of  America  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of 

the  Requirements  for  the  Degree  of 

Doctor  of  Philosophy 


WASHINGTON.  D.  C. 
JUNE,    1912 


CONTENTS 

PACiE 

Introduction — Natuiie  of  Radicalism  5 

Chapter   I — Early    Influences    12 

Lack  of  sympathetic  home  training — Eton — disappointment 
in  love — Oxford,  conditions  there  bad — meets  cynic  Hogg — both 
publish  The  Necessity  of  Atheism,  and  are  expelled — marries 
Harriet  Westbrook — begins  correspondence  with  Godwin — 
visits  Dublin  to  aid  Catholic  Emancipation — Conditions  of 
people  of  England — Caleb  Williams — Queen  Mab. 

Chapter  II — Views  on  Marriage  and  Love   36 

Parting  from  Harriet — views  on  marriage — influence  of 
Godwin,  of  Lawrence's  The  Empire  of  the  Naires — abuses 
of  marriage  in  different  countries — the  Naires  a  possible  source 
of  Rosalind  and  Helen — flight  with  Mary  Godwin — Brown's 
Wieland — The  Revolt  of  Islam — The  Missionary  an  Important 
source  of  the  Revolt — Platonism  and  his  view  of  love — 
Epipsychidion — Mary  Wollstonecraft's  Vindicatioii  of  The 
Rights  of  Women — Louvet's  Memoirs. 

Chapter  III — Politics    66 

Godwin's  Political  Justice — every  kind  of  obedience  wrong — 
views  on  kingcraft — on  violence  and  punishment  of  death — 
reform  through  education — principle  of  justice — laws — owner- 
ship of  property — luxuries — vegetarianism — Leigh  Hunt — pro- 
posal for  putting  Reform  to  a  vote — Prometheus  Unbound — 
masque  of  Anarchy — philosophical  view  of  Reform — the  per- 
fectibility of  man. 

Chapter  IV — Religion  and  Philosophy   ?7 

His  views  on  Christianity  —  not  an  atheist  —  agnostic  — 
sources  of  views  on  belief,  Locke,  Spinoza,  Drummond — God 
not  a  creator — Pantheism — God,  Love,  and  Beauty  identical — 
immortality  of  the  soul — idealism — necessity — freedom  of  the 
will — good  and  evil,  their  origin — virtue  equivalent  to  happi- 
ness— disbelief  in  the  doctrine  of  hell. 

Chapter  V — Radicalism  in  Contemporary  Poetry   108 

Wordsworth — the  Lyrical  Ballads — The  Prelude  and  Ex- 
cursion— Coleridge. 

Chapter  VI — Conclusion    125 

Weakness  of  the  Radical,  of  Shelley — Strength  of  the  Radi- 
cal, of  Shelley. 

Bibliography   139 

Biography    143 

3 


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THE  RADICALISM   OF  SHELLEY  AND  ITS  SOURCES^ 
By  Daniel  J.  McDonald,  Ph.D. 

INTRODUCTION 

The  following  study  of  the  development  of  the  religious  and 
political  views  of  Shelley  is  made  with  the  view  to  help  one  in 
forming  a  true  estimate  of  his  work  and  character. 

That  there  is  a  real  difficulty  in  estimating  correctly  the 
life  and  works  of  Shelley  no  one  acquainted  with  the  varied 
judgments  passed  upon  him  will  deny.  Professor  Trent  claims 
that  there  is  not  a  more  perplexing  and  irritating  subject  for 
study  than  Shelley.-  By  some  our  poet  is  regarded  as  an  angel, 
a  model  of  perfection ;  by  others  he  is  looked  upon  as  "a  rare 
prodigj'  of  crime  and  pollution  whose  look  even  might  infect." 
Mr,  Swinburne  calls  him  '"the  master  singer  of  our  modern 
poets,"  but  neither  Wordsworth  nor  Keats  could  appreciate 
his  poetry.  W.  M.  Rossetti,  in  an  article  on  Shelley  in  the 
ninth  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  writes  as  fol- 
lows :  "In  his  own  day  an  alien  in  the  world  of  mind  and 
invention,  and  in  our  day  scarcely  yet  a  denizen  of  it,  he  ap- 
pears destined  to  become  in  the  long  vista  of  years  an  inform- 
ing presence  in  the  innermost  shrine  of  human  thought." 
Matthew  Arnold,  on  the  other  hand,  in  one  of  his  last  essays, 
writes:  "But  let  no  one  suppose  that  a  want  of  humor  and 
a  self-delusion  such  as  Shelley's  have  no  effect  upon  a  man's 
poetry.  The  man  Shelley,  in  very  truth,  is  not  entirely  sane, 
and  Shelley's  poetry  is  not  entirely  sane  either."  Views  so 
entirely  different,  coming  as  they  do  from  such  eminent  critics 
are  surely  perplexing.  Nevertheless,  there  seems  to  be  a  light 
which  can  illuminate  this  difficulty,  render  intelligible  his 
life  and  works,  and  help  us  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  them. 
This  light  is  a  comprehension  of  the  inHueuce  which  inspired 
him  in  all  he  did  and  all  he  wrote — in  a  word,  a  comprehension 
of  his  radicalism.  A  great  deal  of  the  difficulty  connecte<l 
with  the  studv  of  Shellev  arises  from  ignorance  concerning 


'A  dissertation  submitted  to  the  Catholic  University  of  America 
in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy,  June,  1912. 

"Trent,  The  Authority  of  Criticism  and  Other  Essays. 

i 


()  INTRODUCTION 

radicalism  itself.  I  shall  therefore  begin  by  giving  a  short 
description  of  its  nature  and  function. 

To  many,  radicalism  is  suggestive  only  of  revolution  and 
destruction.  In  their  eyes  it  is  the  spouse  of  disorder  and  the 
mother  of  tyranny.  Its  devotees  are  wild-eyed  fanatics,  and 
in  its  train  are  found  social  outcasts  and  the  scum  of  humanity. 
To  others,  radicalism  presents  a  totally  different  aspect. 
These  admit  that  it  has  been  unfortunate  in  the  quality  of 
many  of  its  adherents,  but  at  the  same  time  they  claim  that 
it  has  proven  itself  the  mainspring  of  progress  in  every  sphere 
of  human  activity.  It  is  depicted  as  the  cause  of  all  the  re- 
forms achieved  in  society.  Without  it  old  ideas  and  principles 
would  always  prevail,  and  stagnation  would  result.  "Conserva- 
tive politicians,"  srjs  Leslie  Stephen,  ''owe  more  than  they 
know  to  the  thinkers  (radicals)  who  keep  alive  a  faith  which 
renders  the  world  tolerable  and  puts  arbitrary  rulers  under 
some  moral  stress  of  responsibility."' 

Although  radicalism  is  a  disposition  found  in  every  period 
of  history,  still  the  word  itself  is  of  comparatively  recent 
origin.  It  first  came  into  vogue  about  the  year  1797,  when 
Fox  and  Home  Tooke  joined  forces  to  bring  about  a  ^'radical 
reform."  In  this  epithet  one  finds  the  idea  of  going  to  the 
roots  of  a  question,  which  was  characteristic  of  eighteenth  cen- 
tury philosophy.  Then  the  expression  seems  to  have  disap- 
peared for  a  time.  In  July,  1809,  a  writer  in  the  Edinhurgh 
Revieiv  says :  "It  cannot  be  doubted  that  there  is  at  the  mo- 
ment ...  a  very  general  desire  for  a  more  'radical'  reform 
than  would  be  effected  by  a  mere  change  of  ministry."*  It  was 
not  until  1817,  however,  that  the  adjective  "radical"  began  to 
be  used  substantively.  On  August  18,  1817,  Cartwright  wrote 
to  T.  Northmore:  "The  crisis,  in  my  judgment,  is  very  favor- 
able for  effecting  an  union  with  the  radicals,  of  the  bettei- 
among  the  Whigs,  and  I  am  meditating  on  means  to  promote 
it."  In  1820  Bentham  wrote  a  pamphlet  entitled  Radicalism 
Not  DangerouSy  and  in  this  work  he  uses  the  word  "radicalists" 
instead  of  "radicals." 

For  a  long  time  the  word  "radical"  was  a  term  of  reproach. 


""English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  Chap.  X. 
*Cf.  Halevy,  La  Resolution  et  la  Doctrine  de  L'Vtilite. 


IXTUOUUCTION  ' 

Sir  Fowell  Buxton,  speaking  of  the  Kadicals,  aays  he  was 
persuaded  that  their  object  was  "the  subversion  of  religion 
and  of  the  constitution." 

Since  that  time  a  radical  has  come  to  mean  any  root-and- 
branch  reformer;  and  radicalism  jtself  may  be  defined  as  a 
tendency  to  abolish  existing  institutions  or  principles.  As 
soon  as  either  of  these  seems  to  have  outlived  its  usefulness, 
radicalism  will  clamor  for  its  suppression.  Discontent,  then,  is 
a  source  of  radicalism.  This,  however,  is  of  a  dual  nature — 
discontent  with  conditions  and  discontent  with  institutions  or 
l>rinciples.  Many  conservatives  indulge  in  the  former,  only 
radicals  in  the  latter.  Again  radicalism  is  not  a  mere  "tearing 
up  by  the  roots,"  as  the  word  is  commonly  interpreted,  but  is 
rather,  as  Philips  Brooks  writes,  "a  getting  down  to  the  root 
of  things  and  planting  institutions  anew  on  just  principbs. 
An  enlightened  radicalism  has  regard  for  righteousness  and 
good  government,  and  will  resist  all  enslavement  to  old  forms 
and  traditions,  and  will  set  them  aside  unless  it  shall  appear 
that  any  of  these  have  a  radically  just  and  defensible  reason 
for  their  existence  and  continuance." 

Kadicalism  thrives  where  conditions  are  favorable  to  a 
change  in  ideals.  It  aims  to  establish  niew  institutions  or  to 
propagate  new  principles,  and  this  presupposes  new  ideals.  As 
the  habits  of  a  man  tend  to  correspond  to  his  ideals,  so  too 
the  institutions  of  a  nation  conform  in  a  broad  way  to  its 
ideals.  In  England  during  the  Middle  Ages  the  institutions 
of  the  country  were  strongly  influenced  by  the  religious  ideal ; 
later  on,  when  the  nation's  ideal  became  national  glory,  they 
assumed  a  political  character;  and  now  they  reflect  the  domi- 
nant influence  which  the  economic  ideal  has  exerted  during  the 
past  century.  The  ideals  of  a  people  than  are  bound  to  undergo 
changes,  and  these  are  sometimes,  though  not  always,  for  a 
nation's  good.  They  are  developed  in  the  main  by  an  increase 
in  knowledge  and  by  industrial  change.  Institutions,  how- 
ever, do  not  keep  pace  with  this  advance  in  ideals;  and  as  a 
consequence  discontent  results  and  radicalism  is  born. 

Moreover,  institutions  are  never  an  adequate  expression  of 
the  ideal.  "Men  are  never  as  good  as  the  goodness  they  know. 
Institutions  reveal  the  same  truth.    The  margin  between  what 


8  INTRODUCTION 

society  knows  and  what  it  is"  makes  radicalism  possible.  In 
his  introduction  to  The  Revolt  of  Islam,  Shelley  expresses  the 
same  thought:  "The  French  Eevolution  may  be  considered 
as  one  of  those  manifestations  of  a  general  state  of  feeling 
among  civilized  mankind  produced  by  a  defect  of  correspond- 
ence between  the  knowledge  existing  in  society  and  the  im- 
provement or  gradual  abolition  of  political  institutions."  The 
greater  that  this  defect  of  correspondence  becomes,  the  more 
intense  will  be  the  radicalism  that  inevitably  ensues. 

Radicals  want  a  change.  The  extent  of  this  change  differ- 
entiates them  fairly  well  among  themselves.  Some  would 
completely  sweep  away  every  existing  institution.  Thus  Shel- 
ley thought  the  great  victory  would  be  won  if  he  could  extermi- 
nate kings  and  priests  at  a  blow. 

Let  the  axe 
Strike  at  the  root,  the  poison-tree  will  falP 
Others  would  be  content  with  changes  of  a  far  less  radical 
character.  Burke,  in  his  early  life,  was  the  most  moderate 
of  these.  At  a  time  when  the  British  constitution  was  sorely 
in  need  of  reform  he  said  concerning  it:  "Never  will  I  cut  it 
in  pieces  and  put  it  in  the  kettle  of  any  magician  in  order 
to  boil  it  with  the  puddle  of  their  compounds  into  youth  and 
vigor;  on  the  contrary,  I  will  drive  away  such  pretenders; 
I  will  nurse  its  venerable  age  and  with  lenient  arts  extend  a 
parent's  breath."  Between  these  two  extremes  many  different 
degrees  of  radicalism  obtain.  In  his  Ecce,  Convertimur  ad 
Gentes,  Arnold  writes:  "For  twenty  years  I  have  felt  con- 
vinced that  for  the  progress  of  our  civilization  here  in  England 
three  things  were  above  all  necessary:  a  reduction  of  those 
immense  inequalities  of  condition  and  property  among  us  of 
which  our  land  system  is  the  cause,  a  genuine  municipal  sys- 
tem, and  public  schools  for  the  middle  class." 

A  just  appreciation  of  the  radicalism  of  Shelley's  poetry  is 
impossible  without  a  knowledge  of  the  function  of  radicalism, 
and  so  it  must  be  considered  a  little  more  in  detail. 

An  attempt  to  abolish  an  institution  is  sure  to  encounter 
the  opposition  of  those  whose  interests  are  bound  up  with 
that  institution.     The  good  that  it  has  accomplished  in  the 

'Queen  Mab,  Canto  IV. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

past  is  sufficient  warrant  for  defending  it  against  the  onslaught 
of  its  assailants.  Le  Men  &est  Vennemi  du  mienx.  No  matter 
how  inadequate  the  institution  in  queston  may  now  be,  it  will 
still  be  championed  by  the  great  majority;  and  were  it  not 
for  the  radicals'  enthusiasm  and  faith  in  their  cause  their 
opposition  would  be  in  vain.  As  a  witty  exponent  of  home- 
spun philosophy  expresses  it:  "Most  people  would  rather  be 
comfortable  than  be  right.*'  They  may  see  that  a  change  is 
needed,  but  they  hold  on  to  the  old  order  of  things  as  long 
as  possible.  Long  before  1789  the  French  nobility  realized  that 
they  should  give  up  their  claims  to  exemption  from  taxation, 
yet  they  retained  them  all  until  forced  to  relinquish  them. 
Had  the  "privileges''  been  less  conservative,  the  Kevolution 
would  never  have  occurred.  It  may  be  said  then  that  radical- 
ism is  born  of  conservatism.  Without  it  might  would  be  right, 
and  anything  like  justice  would  be  well-nigh  impossible. 

Another  factor  in  the  development  of  radicalism  is  the 
inertia  of  mind  and  will  of  a  great  many  people.  Most  persons 
are  not  easily  induced  to  undertake  anything  that  requires 
some  exertion.  They  prefer  to  sit  back  and  let  others  bear  the 
burdens  of  the  day  and  its  heat.  A  good  example  of  this  is 
the  indifference  shown  by  the  French  Catholics  towards  the 
oppressive  legislation  of  their  rulers.  Fortunately,  however, 
in  those  countries  where  free  scope  is  given  to  the  individual, 
and  where  libertj^  of  speech  is  firmly  established,  there  will 
always  be  found  some  who  are  ever  ready  to  take  the  initiative 
in  demanding  a  change.  Their  radicalism  tends  to  counteract 
the  influence  of  this  sleeping  sickness.  It  holds  up  to  men 
the  ideal,  and  inflames  them  with  a  desire  of  attaining  it. 

Again,  the  emotions  do  not  move  as  fast  as  the  intellect. 
They  will  cling  to  their  objects  long  after  the  intellect  has 
counselled  otherwise. 

A  man  convinced  against  his  will 
Is  of  the  same  opinion  still.*^ 

Radicalism  presents  to  men  an  ideal  state  where  everybody 
is  bright  and  free  and  happy;  and  thus  helps  to  detach  the 
affections  from  beliefs  and  institutions  which  are  no  longer 
helpful.     The  emotions  may  not  adhere  to  the  radicals'  scheme, 


'Samuel  Butler,  Hudibras. 


10  INTRODUCTION 

but  they  are  at  least  freed  from  their  old  bondage  and  can 
embrace  the  reforms  of  the  less  conservative.  The  influence 
that  radicalism  exerts  in  this  way  is  a  very  powerful  one. 
Everybody  knows  Carlj^le's  famous  outburst  of  rlietoric  bear- 
ing on  this  point :  ''There  was  once  a  man  called  Jean  Jacques 
Kousseau.  He  wrote  a  book  called  The  Social  Contract.  It 
was  a  theory  and  nothing  but  a  theory.  The  French  nobles 
laughed  at  the  theory,  and  their  skins  went  to  bind  the  second 
edition  of  the  book." 

The  strength  of  radicalism  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  poetical 
and  philosophical.  Through  pliilosophy  it  makes  its  influence 
felt  on  a  country's  leaders,  through  poetry  on  the  citizens  them- 
selves, Andrew  Fletcher,  of  Saltown,  has  said :  ''Let  me 
write  a  country's  songs,  and  I  don't  care  who  makes  its  laws.'' 
The  poet  and  the  radical  are  brothers.  Both  live  on  abstrac- 
tions. As  soon  as  they  particularize  their  mission  fails;  the 
one  ceases  to  be  a  poet  and  the  other  a  radical.  In  his  admir- 
able essay  on  Shelley,  Francis  Thompson  tells  clergymen  that 
"poetry  is  the  preacher  to  men  of  the  earthly  as  you  of  the 
Heavenly  Fairness."  According  to  Saint-Beuve  "the  function 
of  art  is  to  disengage  the  elements  of  beauty,  to  escape  from 
the  mere  frightful  reality."  Substitute  radicalism  for  poetry 
and  art  in  these  quotations  and  they  would  still  be  true. 
Emerson  calls  the  poets  "liberating  gods."  The  ancient  bards 
had  for  the  title  of  their  order:  "Those  who  are  free  through- 
out the  world."  "They  are  free  and  they  make  free."  This 
is  exactly  what  one  would  write  about  radicals.  Poetry  and 
radicalism  then  go  hand  in  hand.  When  radicalism  is  in  the 
ascendant,  poetry  will  throb  with  the  feverish  energy  of  the 
people.  It  will  not  only  be  more  abundant,  but  it  will  show 
more  of  real  life — the  stuff  of  which  literature  is  made.  In 
conservative  times  questions  concerning  life  do  not  agitate 
men's  minds  to  any  great  extent.  People  take  things  as  they 
find  them.  Set  men  a  thinking,  however,  place  new  ideals  be- 
fore them,  and  then  you  get  a  Shakespeare  and  a  Milton  or  a 
galaxy  of  sparkling  gems  such  as  scintillated  in  the  dawn 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

We  find  then  two  tendencies  which  always  exist  in  any 
progressive  society — radicalism  and  conservatism.    Both  have 


INTRODUCTION  1 1 

appeared  in  conuection  with  every  phase  of  thought  and  hu 
man  activity.  Either,  as  Emerson  lias  said,  is  a  good  half 
but  an  impossible  whole.  One  is  too  impetuous,  the  otheK 
is  too  wary.  The  one  rushes  blindly  into  the  future,  the  other 
clings  too  much  to  the  past.  There  is  constant  warfare  be- 
tween the  two  for  the  mastery.  In  a  progressive  community 
neither  of  them  is  in  the  ascendant  for  any  length  of  time. 
A  period  of  radicalism  is  inevitably  followed  by  one  of  con- 
servatism and  vice  versa.  The  pendulum  swings  to  one  extreme 
and  then  back  again  to  the  other.  As  long  as  human  nature 
will  be  what  it  is,  our  institutions  will  be  defective,  and  change 
will  be  the  order  of  the  day.  This  no  doubt  results  in  progress, 
which  Goethe  has  compared  to  a  movement  in  a  spiral 
direction. 

This  action  and  reaction  is  rellected  in  the  literature  of  a 
nation.  No  matter  what  definition  of  literature  we  may  ac 
cept,  whether  it  be  Newman's  personal  use  of  language,  Swin- 
burne's imagination  and  harmony,  or  Matthew  Arnold's  criti- 
cism of  life,  it  will  always  bq  found  that  literature  is  a  crys- 
tallization of  the  ideals  of  the  age.  This  is  true  both  of  poetry 
and  of  prose.  The  poet  is  not  an  isolated  individual.  On 
the  contrary,  he  is  peculiarly  sensitive  to  the  influences  which 
surround  him.  He  is  the  revealer  and  the  awakener  of  these 
influences.  ''And  the  poet  listens  and  he  hears;  and  he  looks 
and  he  sees;  and  he  bends  lower  and  lower  and  he  weeps; 
and  then  growing  with  a  strange  growth,  drawing  from  all 
the  darkness  about  him  his  own  transfiguration,  he  stands 
erect,  terrible  and  tender,  above  all  those  wretched  ones — 
those  of  high  place  as  well  as  those  of  low,  with  flaming  eyes."^ 


'Open  Court. 


CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  INFLUENCES 

The  intensity  of  one's  radicalism  depends  on  the  extent  to 
which  the  institutions  of  a  country  cause  one  suffering  and 
disappointment.    Shelley  says  in  Julian  and  Maddalo : 

Most  wretched  men 
Are  cradled  into  poetry  by  wrong, 
They  learn  in  suffering  what  they  teach  in  song. 

A  description  of  Shelley's  radicalism  then  must  take  account 
of  all  the  circumstances  that  tended  to  make  him  dissatisfied 
with  existing  institutions.  Some  of  these  circumstances  may 
seem  trifling,  but  then  it  must  be  remembered  that  events 
which  appear  insignificant  sometimes  have  far-reaching  effects. 
Pascal  remarked  once  that  the  whole  aspect  of  the  world  would 
be  different  if  Cleopatra's  nose  had  been  a  little  shorter.  The 
history  of  Shelley's  life  is  a  series  of  incidents  which  tended 
to  make  him  radical.  He  never  had  a  chance  to  be  anything 
else.  No  sooner  would  he  be  brought  in  contact  with  con- 
servative influences  than  something  would  hapjDen  to  push 
him  again  on  the  high  road  of  revolt.  Even  were  he  tempera- 
mentally conservative  (and  Hogg  says  that  "his  feelings  and 
behavior  were  in  many  respects  highly  aristocratical"),  the 
experiences  that  he  underwent  were  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
inevitably  lead  him  into  radicalism. 

Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  was  born  at  Field  Place,  in  the  county 
of  Sussex,  on  Saturday,  the  4th  of  August,  1792.  His  family 
was  an  ancient  and  honorable  one  whose  history  extends  back 
to  the  days  of  the  Crusades.  His  grandfather,  Bysshe  Shel- 
ley, born  in  America,  accumulated  a  large  fortune,  married  two 
heiresses,  and  in  1806  received  a  baronetcy.  In  his  old  age 
he  became  whimsical,  greedy,  and  sullen.  He  was  a  skeptic 
hoping  for  nothing  better  than  anniliilation  at  the  end  of  life." 
With  regard  to  the  poet's  father,  it  is  very  diflicnlt  to  form 
a  just  estimate.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Shelley  enthusiasts 
decried  the  father  too  much  in  their  efforts  to  canonize  the 
son.     It  would  indeed  be  strange  to  find  anv  father  at  that 


'  Ingpen,  Letter  Jan.  26,  1812. 

lie 


EARLY  INFLUENCES  13 

time  who  would  be  capable  of  giving  our  poet  that  guidance 
aud  training  which  his  nature  demanded.  It  was  a  time  when 
might  was  right,  when  the  rod  held  a  large  place  in  the  forma- 
tion of  a  boy's  character.  We  must  not  be  too  severe  then  on 
the  father  if  he  was  unacquainted  with  the  proper  way  of 
dealing  with  his  erratic  son.  No  one  who  has  read  Jeafferson's 
life  of  the  poet  will  say  that  Bysshe  treated  his  son  too 
harshly.  It  was  his  judgment  rather  than  his  heart  that  was 
at  fault.  Medwin  remarks  that  all  he  brought  back  from 
Europe  was  a  smattering  of  French  and  a  bad  picture  of 
an  eruption  of  Vesuvius. 

It  is  to  his  mother  that  Shelley  owes  his  beauty  and  his  good 
nature.  He  said  that  she  was  mild  and  tolerant,  but  narrow- 
minded.  Very  few  references  to  the  home  of  his  boyhood  are 
made  in  his  poetry;  and  this  leads  us  to  believe  that  neither 
his  father  nor  his  mother  had  much  influence  over  him. 

In  his  childhood  he  seems  to  have  had  the  day  dreams  and 
reveries  that  Wordsworth  had.  *'Let  us  recollect  our  sensa- 
tions as  children,"  Shelley  writes,  in  the  Essay  on  Life,  *'What 
a  distinct  and  intense  apprehension  had  we  of  the  world 
and  of  ourselves!  .  .  .  We  less  habitually  distinguished  all 
that  we  saw  and  felt  from  ourselves.  They  seemed,  as  it 
were,  to  constitute  one  mass.  There  are  some  persons  who 
in  this  respect  are  always  children.  Those  who  are  subject 
to  the  state  called  reverie  feel  as  if  their  nature  were  dissolved 
into  the  surrounding  universe  or  as  if  the  surrounding  uni- 
verse were  absorbed  into  their  being."  In  Book  II  of  the 
Prelude  Wordsworth  gives  expression  to  a  similar  experience : 

Oft  in  these  moments  such  a  holy  calm 
Would  overspread  my  soul  that  iDodily  eyes 
Were  utterly  forgotten,  and  what  I  saw 
Appeared  like  something  in  myself — a  dream 
A  prospect  in  the  mind. 

Shelley  from  the  very  beginning  delighted  in  giving  free 
scope  to  his  imagination.  In  the  garret  of  the  house  at  Field 
Place  he  imagined  there  was  an  alchemist  old  and  grey  ponder- 
ing over  magic  tomes.  The  ''Great  Old  Snake"  and  the  "Great 
Tortoise"  were  other  wondrous  creatures  of  his  imagination 
that  lived  out  of  doors.    He  used  to  entertain  his  sisters  with 


14  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

weird  stories  about  hobgoblins  and  ghosts;  and  even  got  them 
to  dress  themselves  so  as  to  represent  fiends  and  spirits.  In 
the  Hymn  to  Intellectual  Beauty  he  writes : 

While  yet  a  boy  I  sought  for  ghosts  and  sped 
Thro'  many  a  listening  chamber,  cave  and  ruin 
And  starlight  wood,  with  fearful  steps  pursuing, 
Hopes  of  high   talk  with  the  departed   dead. 

He  was  attached  to  the  occult  sciences  and  sometimes 
watched  whole  nights  for  ghosts.  Once  he  described  minutely 
a  visit  which  he  said  he  had  paid  to  some  neighbors,  and  it  was 
discovered  soon  afterwards  that  the  whole  story  was  a 
fabrication. 

At  ten  years  of  age  he  was  sent  to  Sion  House  Academy, 
Isleworth,  where  he  met  his  cousin  and  future  biographer, 
Thomas  Medwin.  The  other  boys,  IMedwin  tells  us,  considered 
him  strange  and  unsocial.  It  was  at  this  school  that  Shelley 
first  became  acquainted  with  the  romantic  novels  of  Anne 
Radcliffe  and  the  other  novelists  of  the  School  of  Terror.  Here 
too  he  became  greatly  interested  in  chemistry  and  astronomy. 
The  idea  of  a  plurality  of  worlds,  tbrough  which  we  "should 
make  the  grand  tour,"  enchanted  him.  Thus  we  see  that  he 
began  very  early  to  live  in  tlie  unreal  and  the  wonderful. 

In  1804  he  went  to  Eton,  and  there  he  was  known  as  "Mad 
Shelley"  and  "Shelley  the  Atheist."  The  word  "atheist"  here 
does  not  mean  one  who  denies  the  existence  of  God.  According 
to  Hogg,  it  was  a  term  given  to  those  who  distinguished  them- 
selves for  their  opposition  to  the  authorities  of  the  school. 
The  title  must  have  fallen  into  disuse  shortly  after  Shelley's 
time,  as  Professor  Dowdon  failed  to  find  at  Eton  any  trace 
of  this  peculiar  usage  of  the  word.  Here  he  became  interested 
in  physical  experiments  and  carried  them  on  at  unseasonable 
hours.  For  this  he  was  frequently  reprimanded  by  his  supe- 
riors, but  he  proved  to  be  very  untractable. 

At  Eton  Shelley  became  acquainted  with  Dr.  Liud,  whom  he 
immortalized  as  a  hermit  in  The  Revolt  of  Islam  and  as 
Zonoras  in  Prince  Athanase.  It  was  Dr.  Lind,  according  to 
Hogg,  who  gave  Shelley  his  first  lessons  in  French  philos- 
ophism.     JeafiFerson  says  that  he  taught  Shelley  to  curse  his 


EARLY    INFLUENCES  15 

superiors  and  to  write  letters  to  unsuspectiug  persons  to  trip 
them  up  witli  catch  questions  and  tlien  laugh  at  them.* 

An  event  occurred  in  the  summer  of  1810  which  had  consid- 
erable influence  in  developing  the  radicalism  of  Shelley.  He 
had  known  and  loved  his  cousin,  Harriet  Grove,  from  child- 
hood, and  during  the  vacation  of  this  year  asked  her  to  be  his 
wife.  Harriet's  family,  however,  became  alarmed  at  his  atheis- 
tical tendencies  and  made  her  give  up  all  communications 
with  him.  This  angered  him  very  much,  and  made  him  declaim 
against  what  he  considered  to  be  bigotry  and  intolerance.  In 
a  letter  to  Hogg.  December  20,  1810,  he  writes:  ''O!  I  burn 
with  impatience  for  the  moment  of  the  dissolution  of  intoler- 
ance; it  has  injured  me.  I  swear  on  the  altar  of  perjured 
love  to  revenge  myself,  on  the  hated  cause  of  the  effect ;  which 
even  now  I  can  scarcely  help  deploring.  .  .  .  Adieu  I  Down 
with  bigotry!  Down  with  intolerance!  In  this  endeavour 
your  most  sincere  friend  will  join  his  every  power,  his  every 
feeble  resource.  Adieu!"  And  in  a  letter  of  January  3, 
1811  :  "She  is  no  longer  mine!  She  abhors  me  as  a  skeptic  as 
what  she  was  before!  Oh.  bigotry!  When  I  pardon  this  last, 
this  severest  of  thy  persecutions,  may  Heaven  (if  there  be 
wrath  in  Heaven)  blast  me!''  These  ravings  show  Shelley  to 
have  been  nervous,  hysterical,  and  supersensitive. 

The  breaking  of  this  engagement  with  Harriet  made  such  an 
impression  on  him  as  to  convince  him  that  he  should  combat 
all  those  influences  which  caused  the  rupture.  The  story  of 
Shelley's  life  might  have  been  an  entirely  difl'erent  one  had  he 
been  allowed  to  marry  Harriet  Grove.  Man  is  a  stubborn 
animal.  Once  he  takes  up  a  certain  side,  opposition  merely 
serves  to  strengthen  his  convictions  and  make  him  fight  all 
the  harder.  If  Shelley's  willfulness  had  been  ignored  instead 
of  opposed,  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  would  have  seen  things 
in  their  proper  light  and  would  never  have  been  the  rabid 
radical  that  he  became.  An  Etonian  called  once  on  Shelley  in 
Oxford  and  asked  him  if  he  meant  to  be  an  atheist  there  too. 
"No !"  he  answered,  "certainly  not.  There  is  no  motive  for  it ; 
they  are  very  civil  to  us  here;  it  is  not  like  Eton.'"»     It  is 


*The  Real  Shelley,  Vol.  I,  p.  97. 
•Hogg:     Life  of  Shelley,  p.  136. 


16  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

Medwin's  conviction  that  Shelley  never  completely  overcame 
his  love  for  Harriet.  Hogg  notes  that  as  late  as  1813  Shelley 
loved  to  play  a  simple  air  that  Harriet  taught  him.  In  the 
Epipsychidion  he  refers  to  her  thus:  "And  one  was  true — 
Oh!  why  not  true  to  me?"  Love  was  to  Shelley  what  religion 
is  to  the  ascetic.  He  could  not  understand  why  one  should 
put  obstacles  in  the  way  of  anyone  in  love,  and  so  he  thinks 
himself  in  duty  bound  to  fight  everything  that  supports  this 
hated  intolerance.  This  led  him  to  wage  war  against  religion 
itself. 

Shelley  entered  University  College,  Oxford,  in  the  Michael- 
mas term  of  1810.  It  was  unfortunate  for  him  that  condi- 
tions at  the  university  were  as  deplorable  as  they  were.  He 
did  not  find  there  the  intellectual  food  that  his  mind  needed, 
and  no  doubt  his  sensitive  soul  was  scandalized  by  what  it 
felt.  Intellectual  life  there  was  dull.  Mark  Pattison*"  says 
Oxford  was  nothing  more  than  a  grammar  school,  the  college 
tutors  were  a  little  inferior  to  public  school  directors,  and 
they  obtained  their  positions  through  favoritism  and  not 
through  merit.  Copleston,  a  defender  of  the  university  against 
the  attacks  of  the  Edinhurgh  Eeview,  admitted  that  only  ex- 
treme incapacity  or  flagrant  idleness  would  prevent  a  student 
from  obtaining  his  degree  at  the  end  of  his  course.  Fynes 
Clinton,  in  his  Autobiography,  tells  us  that  Greek  studies  at 
Christ  Church  were  very  much  neglected.  During  his  seven 
years  of  residence  grammar,  syntax,  prosody  were  never 
mentioned.  Students  rarely  attended  lectures.  Much  of  their 
time  was  passed  in  hunting,  drinking,  and  every  kind  of  de- 
bauchery. "At  boarding  schools  of  every  description,"  writes 
Mrs.  WoUstonecraft,  "the  relaxation  of  the  junior  boys  is 
mischief;  and  of  the  senior,  vice.  Besides,  in  great  schools, 
what  can  be  more  prejudicial  to  the  moral  character  tha)i 
the  system  of  tyranny  and  abject  slavery  which  is  established 
among  the  boys,  to  say  nothing  of  the  slavery  to  forms,  which 
makes  religion  worse  than  a  farce?  For  what  good  can  be 
expected  from  the  youth  who  receives  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  to  avoid  forfeiting  halfa-guinea,  which  he 
probably    afterwards    spends    in    some    sensual    manner ?"^^ 

^"Oxford  Studies  (1855),  quoted  in  Koszul,  p.  59. 
"Rights  of  Woman,  Ch.  12,  p.  174, 


KARI.Y    IXP^LTJENCE«  IT 

Such  was  the  atmosphere  in  which  Shelley  was  placed,  and 
it  is  little  wonder  that  it  luistened  the  growth  of  the  seeds 
ol"  discontent  and  revolt  which  had  been  already  implanted 
in  his  soul. 

Misfortune  still  pursued  Shelley.  Had  he  formed  friend- 
ships at  Oxford  with  men  of  sober  intellect,  the  whole  course 
of  his  life  might  have  been  changed.  Unfortunately  he  soon 
found  a  kindred  spirit  in  the  cynic  Hogg. 

This  friend  of  Shelley  gives  us  minute  details  of  the  poet's 
life  there.  He  thinks  that  Shelley  took  up  skeptical  philosophy 
because  of  the  advantage  it  gave  him  in  argument.  Hume's 
Essays  was  a  favorite  book  with  Shelley,  and  lie  was  always 
ready  to  put  forward  in  argument  its  doctrines.  It  may  seem 
strange  that  this  cold  skeptical  philosophy  appealed  to  such 
an  imaginative  poet  as  Shelley;  but  destruction,  as  Hogg 
remarks,  so  that  it  be  on  a  grand  scale,  may  sometimes  prove 
hardly  less  inspiring  than  creation.  "The  feat  of  the  magician 
who,  by  the  touch  of  his  wand,  could  cause  the  great  pyramid 
to  dissolve  into  the  air  would  be  as  surprising  as  the  achieve- 
ment of  him  who  by  the  same  rod  could  instantly  raise  a 
similar  mass  in  any  chosen  spot." 

On  September  18,  1810,  Stockdale  offered  for  sale  a  volume 
of  poetry  by  Shelley  entitled  ^'Original  Poetry :  by  Victor  and 
Cazire."  The  book  was  not  out  long  when  it  was  discovered 
that  many  of  the  poems  were  stolen  property — a  fraud  on  the 
public  and  an  infringement  of  at  least  one  writer's  copyright. 
The  book  was  at  once  withdrawn  and  suppressed.  Some  doubt 
exists  as  to  the  name  of  the  person  who  cooperated  with  Shel- 
ley in  producing  this  book.  Shelley  enthusiasts  say  that  Shelley 
was  the  unsuspicious  victim  of  an  unworthy  coadjutor.  Jeaf- 
ferson  is  of  the  opinion  that  Shelley  was  fully  conscious  of  the 
fraud  that  was  being  done.  This  biographer  maintains  that 
Shelley  was  an  inveterate  liar.      — -^ 

"About  this  time,"  says  Stockdale,  "not  merely  slight  hints 
but  constant  allusions,  personally  and  by  letters,  .  .  .  rendei'jd 
Mie  extremely  uneasy  respecting  Mr.  Shelley's  religious,  or 
indeed  irreligious,  sentiments."  Shelly's  father  too  was  worry- 
ing at  this  time  about  his  son's  loss  of  faith.  He  may  have 
received  the  first  intimation  of  his  son's  speculations  from  a 


18  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

criticism  in  The  Critical  Review  of  another  work  of  Shelley's, 
Zastrozzi,  in  which  the  unknown  author  was  condemned  as  an 
offender  against  morality  and  a  corrupter  of  youth.  The  irate 
father  wrote  to  his  son  and  severely  reprimanded  him  for  his 
conduct. 

In  a  letter  to  Hogg,  Shelley  says :  "My  father  wrote  to  me, 
and  I  am  now  surrounded,  environed  by  dangers,  to  which 
compared  the  devils  who  besieged  St.  Anthony  were  all  ineffi- 
cient. They  attack  me  for  my  detestable  principles.  I  am 
reckoned  an  outcast,  yet  I  defy  them,  and  laugh  at  their 
ineffectual  efforts,  etc."  And  in  another  letter:  '*My  mother 
imagines  me  to  be  on  the  highroad  to  Pandemonium;  she 
fancies  I  want  to  make  a  deistical  coterie  of  my  little  sisters. 
How  laughable !"  Shelley  imagines  the  whole  world  is  against 
him.  He  feels  very  keenly  his  isolation.  He  says  his  "soul  was 
bursting."  There  is  a  relief  though,  "I  slept  with  a  loaded 
pistol  and  some  poison  last  night,  but  did  not  die." 

Shelley  thought  he  was  called  upon  to  come  to  the  aid  of 
all  those  in  distress.  We  find  him  at  this  time  aiding  aspiring 
authors,  and  defending  traitorous  politicians.  An  Irish  jour- 
nalist, Peter  Finnerty,  was  condemned  for  libel  and  sentenced 
to  eighteen  months'  imprisonment  in  Lincoln  jail.  Shelley 
contributed  to  a  subscription  list  in  aid  of  Finnerty  and  also 
wrote  a  poem  entitled  A  Poetical  Essay  on  the  Existing 
State  of  Things  to  help  on  the  cause.  Leigh  and  John  Hunt, 
who  defended  Finnerty  in  The  Examiner,  were  tried  for  sedi- 
tious libel  and  acquitted.  Shelley  rejoiced  over  their  triumph, 
and  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Leigh  Hunt  congratulating 
him  and  proposing  a  scheme  for  the  mutual  defense  of  all 
friends  of  "rational  liberty." 

University  College^  Oxford_, 
March  2,  1811. 
Sir: — Permit  me,  although  a  stranger,  to  offer  my  sincerest 
congratulations  on  the  occasion  of  that  triumph  so  highly  to  be 
prized  by  men  of  liberality;  permit  me  also  to  submit  to  your 
consideration,  as  one  of  the  most  fearless  enlighteners  of  the 
public  mind  at  the  present  time,  a  scheme  of  mutual  safety 
and  mutual  indemnification  for  men  of  public  spirit  and  prin- 
ciple, which,  if  carried  into  effect,  would  evidently  be  produc- 
tive of  incalculable  advantages. 


EARLY    INFLUENCES  19 

The  ultimate  intention  of  my  aim  is  to  induce  a  meeting  of 
such  enlightened,  unprejudiced  members  of  the  community 
.  .  .  and  to  form  a  methodical  society,  which  should  be  organ- 
ized so  as  to  resist  the  coalition  of  the  enemies  of  liberty.  .  .  . 
It  has  been  for  the  want  of  societies  of  this  nature  that  cor- 
ruption has  attained  the  height  at  which  we  behold  it;  nor 
can  any  of  us  bear  in  mind  the  very  great  influence  which, 
some  years  since,  was  gained  by  lUitm'uiisni,  without  consider- 
ing that  a  society  of  equal  extent  might  establish  rational  lib- 
erty on  as  firm  a  basis  as  that  which  would  have  supported  the 
visionary  schemes  of  a  completely  equalized  community.  .  .  . 
On  account  of  the  responsibility  to  which  my  residence  in  this 
university  subjects  me,  1,  of  course,  dare  not  publicly  avow 
all  that  I  think;  but  the  time  will  come  when  I  hope  that  my 
every  endeavor,  insufficient  as  they  may  be,  will  be  directed 
to  the  advancement  of  liberty. 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

P.  B,  Shelley. 

One  of  the  books  read  by  Shelley  at  this  time  was  the  Abbe 
Barruel's  Memoires  iwur  servir  a  VMstoire  du  Jacohinisme, 
which  contains  an  account  of  the  Society  of  Illuminists.  The 
remarkable  success  of  this  society  in  propagating  free  thought 
and  revolutionary  principles  evidently  inspired  Shelley  to  at- 
tempt the  formation  of  a  similar  society  in  England.  His  pro- 
posals, though,  fell  on  deaf  ears,  and  it  is  probable  that  Leigh 
Hunt  did  not  even  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  Shelley's  letter. 

In  February,  1811,  a  small  pamphlet.  The  Necessity  of  Athe- 
ism, which  was  written  by  Shelley,  was  published  anonymously. 
According  to  Hogg,  Shellej^  had  a  custom  of  writing  to  divines 
and  engaging  them  in  controversy  on  the  existence  of  God. 
The  Xecessitjj  of  Atheism  is  merely  an  elaboration  of  the 
arguments  of  these  letters.  The  masters  and  some  of  the  fel- 
lows of  Oxford  sent  for  Shelley  and  asked  him  if  he  were  the 
author  of  the  work.  He  replied  that  they  should  produce  their 
evidence,  if  they  could  prove  he  wrote  it,  and  not  question  him 
because  it  was  neither  just  nor  lawful  to  interrogate  him  in 
such  a  case  and  for  such  a  purpose.  Shelley  refused  to  answer 
their  questions  and  was  given  one  day  in  which  to  leave  the 
college.  His  friend  Hogg  shared  the  same  fate  for  the  same 
reason.  Shelley  never  received  any  admonition  nor  hint  that 
his  speculations  were  improper.  Hogg  says  "there  can  be  no 
reasonable  doubt  that  he  would  at  once  have  acceded  to  what- 


20  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

ever  had  been  proposed  to  him  by  authority."^-  Every  kind  of 
disorder  was  tolerated  at  the  university,  and  Shelley  and  Hogg 
had  no  suspicion  that  their  metaphysical  speculations  were 
considered  so  much  worse  than  drunkenness  and  immorality. 
If  the  sentence  was  not  unjust,  it  was  at  least  needlessly  harsh. 
►Shelley  felt  the  sting  of  this  disgrace  verj^  keenly,  and  it  did 
much  to  embitter  him  against  all  kinds  of  authority. 

Shelley  and  Hogg  proceeded  to  London  after  their  expulsion 
and  obtained  rooms  in  Poland  Street.  The  name  reminded 
Shelley  of  Kosciusko  and  Freedom.  Timothy  Shelley  wrote  to 
his  son,  commanding  him  to  abstain  from  all  communication 
with  Hogg  and  place  himself  "under  the  care  and  society  of 
such  gentlemen  as  he  should  appoint"  under  pain  of  being 
deprived  of  all  pecuniary  aid.  Shelley  refused  to  comply  with 
these  proposals.  Toward  the  middle  of  April  Hogg  left  Lon- 
don to  settle  down  to  his  legal  training  in  York. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Shelley  became  acquainted  with 
Harriet  Westbrook.  She  wrote  him  from  London  that  she  was 
wretchedly  unhappy,  that  she  was  about  to  be  forced  to  go 
to  school,  and  wanted  to  know  if  it  would  be  wrong  to  put 
an  end  to  her  miserable  life.  Another  letter  from  her  soon 
followed,  in  which  she  threw  herself  upon  his  protection  and 
proposed  to  fly  with  him.  Shelley  hastened  to  London,  and 
after  the  delay  of  a  few  weeks  eloped  with  Harriet  to  Edin- 
burgh, where  thej'  were  married  on  August  28,  1811.  Shelley 
agreed  to  go  through  the  ceremony  of  matrimony  to  save  his 
wife  from  the  social  disgrace  that  would  otherwise  fall 
upon  her. 

Writing  to  Miss  Hitchener  on  March  11,  1812,  Harriet  says: 
"1  thought  if  I  married  anyone  it  should  be  a  clergyman. 
Strange  idea  this,  was  it  not?  But  being  brought  up  in  the 
Christian  religion,  'twas  this  first  gave  rise  to  it.  You  may 
conceive  with  what  horror  I  first  heard  that  Percy  was  an 
atheist;  at  least  so  it  was  given  out  at  Clapham.  At  first  I 
did  not  comprehend  the  meaning  of  the  word;  therefore  when 
it  was  explained  I  was  truly  petrified.  ...  I  little  thought 
of  the  rectitude  of  these  principles  and  when  I  wrote  to  him 
I  used  to  try  to  shake  them — making  sure  he  was  in  the  wrong, 

"Hogg,  Life  of  Shelley,  p.  71. 


EARLY    INFLUENCES  21 

and  that  myself  was  right.  .  .  .  Now,  however,  this  is  entirely 
(lone  away  with,  and  my  soul  is  no  longer  shackled  with  such 
idle  fears.''  This  would  indicate  that  he  spent  more  time 
proselytizing  Harriet  than  in  making  love  to  her. 

It  has  been  said  that  Harriet's  sister,  Elizabeth,  managed 
the  whole  affair,  and  that  the  marriage  was  brought  about 
through  her  successful  jdotting.^^  After  spending  five  weeks 
in  Edinburgh,  Shelley,  Harriet,  and  Hogg  went  to  York. 
They  were  joined  there  by  Elizabeth,  who  henceforth  ruled 
over  Shelley's  household  with  a  stern  hand.  She  is  partly 
responsible  for  the  estrangement  of  Shelley  and  his  wife. 

During  all  this  time  Shelley  was  in  need  of  money,  and 
shortly  after  their  arrival  at  York  went  south  to  induce  his 
father  to  provide  them  with  the  means  of  living.  While  he 
was  absent  Hogg  tried  to  seduce  Harriet.  Shelley  sought  an 
explanation  from  Hogg,  and  pardoned  him  "fully  and  freely.'' 
Shelley's  account  of  the  affair  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Hitchener 
savors  much  of  Godwinism.  "I  desired  to  know  fully  the 
account  of  this  affair.  T  heard  it  from  him  and  I  believe  he 
was  sincere.  All  I  can  recollect  of  that  terrible  day  was  that 
I  pardoned  him — fully,  freely  pardoned  him;  that  I  would 
still  be  a  friend  to  him  and  hoped  soon  to  convince  him  how 
lovely  virtue  was;  that  his  crime,  not  himself,  was  the  object 
of  my  detestation;  that  I  value  a  human  being  not  for  what 
it  has  been  but  for  what  it  is;  that  I  hoped  the  time  would 
come  when  he  would  regard  this  horrible  error  with  as  much 
disgust  as  I  did."" 

Early  in  November,  Shelley,  his  wife,  and  Eliza  left  Y'ork 
suddenly  for  Keswick.  Shelley's  father  and  grandfather 
feared  that  the  poet  would  parcel  out  the  family  estate  to  soul- 
mates,  and  so  they  proposed  to  allow  him  £2,000  a  year  if  he 
would  consent  to  entail  the  property  on  his  eldest  son,  and 
in  default  of  issue,  on  his  brother.  The  proposition  was  in- 
dignantly rejected.  He  considered  that  kinship  bore  that 
relation  to  reason  which  a  band  of  straw  does  to  tire.     ''I  am 


""II  est  vrai  que  Shelley  courait  un  peu  a  I'amour  de  Harriet  comme 
MacBeth  courait  au  meurtre  de  Duncan.  'Ce  qu'il  faisait  ressemblait 
plutot  a  un  coup  de  volonte  qu'  a  un  elan  de  passion." — La  Jeunesse  de 
Shelley,  Koszul,  p.  86. 

^*Ingpen,  Vol.  I,  p.  155. 


22  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

led  to  love  a  being  not  because  it  stands  in  the  physical  rela- 
tion of  blood  to  me  but  because  I  discern  an  intellectual 
relationship." 

Early  in  1812  Shelley  started  a  correspondence  with  William 
Godwin,  to  whom  he  was  then  a  stranger.  In  his  first  letter 
he  writes:  "The  name  of  Godwin  has  been  used  to  excite  in 
me  feelings  of  reverence  and  admiration.  I  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  consider  him  a  luminary  too  dazzling  for  the  dark- 
ness which  surrounds  him.  From  the  earliest  period  of  my 
knowledge  of  his  principles  I  have  ardently  desired  to  share, 
on  the  footing  of  intimacy,  that  intellect  which  I  have  de- 
lighted to  contemplate  in  its  emanations." 

Godwin's  influence  with  the  revolutionists  of  this  time  was 
great.  Coleridge  and  Southey  were  his  ardent  disciples  for 
a  time.  ''Throw  aside  your  books  of  chemistrj^"  said  Words- 
Avorth  to  a  student,  "and  read  Godwin  on  necessity."  This 
philosopher  seemed  to  provide  them  with  a  simple,  compre- 
hensive code  of  morality,  which  gave  unlimited  freedom  to  the 
reason,  and  justice  as  complete  as  possible  to  the  individual. 

In  February,  1812,  the  Shelleys  went  to  Dublin  to  help  on 
the  cause  of  moral  and  Intellectual  reform.  He  published 
there  an  "Address  to  the  Irisii  People"  which  he  had  written 
during  his  stay  at  Keswick.  Shelley's  mission  was  moral  and 
educational  rather  than  political.  lie  advocated  Catholic 
Emancipation  and  the  Eepeal  of  the  Union ;  but  he  thought 
that  he  should  first  of  all  strive  to  dispel  bigotry  and  intoler- 
ance— "to  awaken  a  noble  nation  from  the  lethargy  of  de- 
spair,"^^  What  Irishmen  needed  most  of  all  were  knowledge, 
sobriety,  peace,  benevolence — in  a  word,  virtue  and  wisdom. 
"When  you  have  these  things,"  he  said,  "you  may  defy  the 
tyrant."  It  is  not  surprising  that  his  mission  turned  out  to  be 
a  fiasco.  (lodwin  wrote  Shelley  several  letters  in  which  he 
tried  to  convince  him  that  his  pamphlets  and  Association 
would  stir  up  strife  and  rebellion.  "Shelley,"  he  writes,  "you 
are  preparing  a  scene  of  blood."  The  poet  accordingly  with- 
drew his  pamphlets  from  circulation  and  quitted  Ireland. 

Shelley  then  crossed  over  to  Wales,  and  after  a  short  resi- 
dence at  Nangwillt  settled  at  Lynmouth.    IClizabeth  Kitchener, 


'Hogg,  Vol.  II,  p.  52. 


EARLY    INFLUENCES  23 

"the  sister  of  his  soul,""^  joined  them  there.  The  poet  first 
met  her  at  Cuckiield  while  visiting  his  uncle,  Captain  Pilfohl. 
She  was  a  schoolmistress,  professing  very  liberal  opinions 
and  possessing  ''a  tongue  of  energy  and  an  eye  of  fire." 
Everybody  that  Shelley  admired  seemed  to  him  perfect,  while 
those  whom  he  disliked  were  fiends.  Their  correspondence, 
which  extends  over  a  period  of  more  than  a  year,  gives  us  a 
good  picture  of  the  workings  of  Shelley's  mind  during  this 
time.  They  all  moved  to  London  in  November.  It  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  a  combination  of  even  such  disinterested, 
enlightened  superior  mortals  as  these  could  last  long.  Eliza- 
beth's influence  over  Shelley  soon  began  to  wane.  His  dislike 
for  her  was  equalled  only  by  his  former  extravagant  praise. 
She  was  no  longer  his  angel,  but  was  now  known  as  the 
''Brown  Demon."  "She  is,"  he  writes,  "an  artful,  superficial, 
ugly,  hermaphroditical  beast  of  a  woman,  and  my  astonish- 
ment at  my  fatuity,  inconsistency,  and  bad  taste  was  never 
so  great  as  after  living  four  months  with  her  as  an  inmate. 
What  would  hell  be  were  such  a  woman  in  heaven?"  Miss 
Kitchener  took  her  leave  of  the  Shelleys  and  again  became  a 
schoolmistress. 

Shelley  and  his  family  spent  some  time  in  Wales  and  Dub- 
lin and  then  returned  again  to  Loudon  in  April,  1813. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  he  finished  Queen  Mab.  On 
February  19,  1818,  Shelley  wrote  to  Hookham,  his  publisher: 
"You  will  receive  Queen  Mob  with  the  other  poems ;  I  think 
that  the  whole  should  form  one  volume."  Medwin  says  that 
he  commenced  this  work  in  the  autumn  of  1809.  "After  his 
expulsion  he  reverted  to  his  Queen  Mab  commenced  a  year 
and  a  half  before,  and  converted  what  was  a  mere  imaginative 
poem  into  a  systematic  attack  on  the  institutions  of  society." 
What  was  it  that  induced  him  to  make  the  change?  There  is 
no  doubt  but  it  was  his  experieuce  of  the  misery  and  suffering 
around  him  that  prompted  him  to  attack  society  as  he  did. 

Radicalism,  as  has  already  been  shown,  springs  from  dis- 
content.    The  worse  existing  conditions  are,  the  more  i3ro- 
nounced  will  be  the  radicalism  that  usually  arises.     Condi 
tions^moral,  political  and  social — during  the  latter  half  <>{ 

"Wordsworth  uses  this  expression  in  the  conclusion  of  Tht  Prelude. 


24  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

the  eighteeuth  ceuturj'  were  very  bad  indeed.  lu  his  inimitable 
sketches  of  the  four  Georges,  Thackeraj'  asserts  that  the  dis- 
soluteuess  of  the  nation  was  awfnl.  He  depicts  the  lives  of  its 
princes,  courtiers,  men  of  rank  and  fashion  as  idle,  profligate, 
and  criminal.  ''Around  a  young  king  himself  of  the  most 
exemplary  life  and  undoubted  piety  lived  a  court  society  as 
dissolute  as  our  country  ever  knew."  Education  was  sadly 
neglected.  In  Kichardson's  Sir  Charles  Graudison,  published 
1753,  Charlotte  gives  an  account  of  her  two  lovers.  One  of 
them  is  an  ideal  specimen  of  the  young  nobility  and  is  rep- 
resented as  spelling  pretty  well  for  a  lord.  In  Ireland,  the 
colonies,  and  even  in  England  itself,  oppression  was  well-nigh 
intolerable.  Byron's  Age  of  Bronze  contains  a  good  descrip- 
tion of  the  way  in  which  the  landlords  treated  their  tenants. 
The  changes  that  followed  in  tlie  wake  of  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution caused  untold  suffering.  The  spread  of  machinery  de- 
stroyed the  old  domestic  industries  of  spinning  and  weaving, 
and  many  were  consequently  deprived  of  their  most  important 
source  of  subsistence.  Children  took  up  the  places  of  the 
master  craftsmen;  and  the  amount  of  misery  that  this  sub- 
stitution entailed  to  both  children  and  craftsmen  is  almost 
incredible.^^  Politics  was  rotten  to  the  core.  Even  the  great 
commoner,  William  Pitt,  has  been  convicted  by  Macaulay,  of 
sacrificing  his  principles  without  any  scruple  whatever.  The 
political  corruption  started  by  Vuilpole  was  oi-ganized  into 
a  system.  Every  man  had  his  price.  "Politicians  are  mere 
jobbers;  officers  are  gamblers  and  bullies;  the  clergy  are 
contemned  and  are  contemptible;  low  spirits  and  nervous 
disorders  have  notoriously  increased,  until  the  people  are  no 
longer  capable  of  self-defense."'^  In  their  struggle  with  the 
Stuarts  the  people  were  completely  victorious;  but  it  soon 
became  apparent  that  they  had  simply  substituted  one  evil 
for  another.  The  despotism  exercised  by  the  Stuarts  was  now 
practiced  by  the  Dodingtons  and  the  Winningtons.  Burke  ob- 
serves :  *'The  distempers  of  monarchy  were  the  great  subjects 
of  apprehension  and  redress  in  the  last  century.  In  this  the 
<listempers  of  I'arliament." 


"Cf.    The  Excursion.  Book  VIII. 

"Leslie  Stephen:  English  Thought  i7i  the  Eighteenth  Century.  Vol.  II. 


EARLY    INrLT'ENOES  25 

The  House  of  Commons  was  not  responsible  to  anybody; 
and  its  members  showed  very  little  consideration  for  their 
constituents.  Persons  who  were  not  acceptable  to  the  ruling 
party  were  often  fined  and  imprisoned  without  due  process 
of  law.  It  is  little  wonder  then  that  (jodwin,  Shelley,  and 
others  declaimed  against  all  forms  of  government.  They  were 
acquainted  only  with  the  Parliament  of  the  Georges  and  the 
oligarchy  of  the  Stuarts,  and  the  one  was  as  bad  as  the  other. 

The  national  debt  was  trebled  in  the  space  of  twenty  years, 
thus  imposing  heavy  sacrifices  on  all.  There  was  an  income- 
tax  of  two  shillings  on  a  pound  sterling;  but  the  taxes  which 
caused  the  most  suffering  to  the  poor  were  the  indirect  taxes 
on  wheat,  shoes,  salt,  etc.  In  1815  a  law  was  passed  prohibit- 
ing the  importation  of  wheat  for  less  than  eighty  shillings  the 
quarter.^^  No  doubt  the  wealth  of  the  country  became  very 
great  through  the  development  of  new  resources,  but  it  was 
distributed  among  the  few  and  gave  no  relief  to  the  common 
people. 

The  poor  laws  were  working  astounding  evils.  \\'ith  wheat 
at  a  given  price,  the  minimum  on  which  a  man  witli  wife  and 
one  child  could  subsist  was  settled;  and  whenever  the  family 
earnings  fell  below  the  estimated  minimum,  the  deficiency  was 
to  be  made  up  fi'om  the  rates.  In  this  way  the  path  to  pauper- 
ism was  made  so  easy  and  agreeable  that  a  large  portion  of 
the  laboring  classes  drifted  along  it.  This  system  set  a  pre- 
mium on  improvidence  if  not  on  vice.  The  inevitable  eft'ect 
was  that  wages  fell  as  doles  increased,  that  paupers  so  pen- 
sioned were  preferred  by  the  farmers  to  independent  laborers, 
because  their  labor  was  cheaper,  and  that  independent  laborers, 
failing  to  get  work  except  at  wages  forced  down  to  a  minimum, 
were  constantly  falling  into  the  ranks  of  pauperism.  It  was 
not  until  1834  that  ''a  new  poor  law"  was  enacted  which 
eliminated  these  evils.-° 

From  one  end  of  the  kingdom  to  the  other  the  prisons  were 
a  standing  disgrace  to  civilization.  Imprisonment  from  what- 
ever cause  it  might  be  imposed  meant  consignment  to  a  living 


"Koszul,  p.  340. 

-"Cf.  Social  England,  Trail  and  Mann,  p.  825,  also  The  Political  History 
of  England,  by  Broderick  and  Fotheringham,  p.  340. 


26  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

tomb.  Jails  were  pesthoiises,  in  which  a  disease,  akin  to  our 
modern  typhus,  flourished  often  in  epidemic  form.  They  were 
mostly  private  institutions  leased  out  to  ruthless,  rapacious 
keepers  who  used  every  menace  and  extortion  to  wring  money 
out  of  the  wretched  beings  committed  to  their  care.  Prisons 
were  dark  because  their  managers  objected  to  pay  the  window 
tax.  Pauper  prisoners  were  nearly  starved,  for  there  was 
no  regular  allowance  of  food.  Howard's  crusade  against  prison 
mismanagement  produced  tangible  results,  but  after  his  death 
the  cause  of  prison  reform  soon  dropped,  the  old  evils  revived, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  every- 
where visible.-^ 

The  Church  of  England,  it  appears,  had  become  an  object 
of  contempt.  No  doubt  Selwyn's  Dr.  Warner  is  a  distorted 
picture  of  the  clergymen  of  the  time;  yet  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  Anglican  parsons  were  not  very  much  concerned 
with  the  salvation  of  souls.  "The  Church  had  become  a  vast 
machine  for  the  promotion  of  her  own  officers.  How  admir- 
able an  investment  is  Religion  I  Such  is  the  burden  of  their 
pleading!-' 

Some  of  the  conventionalities  of  the  age  were  so  absurd  as 
to  engender  sooner  or  later  a  spirit  of  revolt.  Servant? 
said  ''your  honor"  and  "your  worship"'  at  every  moment: 
tradesmen  stood  hat  in  hand  as  the  gentlemen  passed  by:  chap- 
lains said  grace  and  retired  before  the  pudding.  "In  the  days 
when  there  were  fine  gentlemen,  Mr.  Secretary  Pitt's  under- 
secretaries did  not  dare  to  sit  down  before  him;  but  ]Mr. 
Pitt,  in  his  turn,  went  down  on  his  gouty  knees  to  George  II; 
and  when  George  III  spoke  a  few  kind  words  to  him,  Lord 
Chatham  burst  into  tears  of  reverential  jo}'  and  gratitude;  so 
awful  was  the  idea  of  the  monarch,  and  so  great  tlie  distinc- 
tion of  rank.""  Not  to  use  hair  powder  was  an  unpardonable 
offence.  Southey  and  Savage  Landor  were  among  the  first 
to  appear  with  their  hair  in  statu  naturaJi  and  this  action 
of  theirs  produced  an  extraordinary  sensation. 

Caleb  Williams,  written  bj^  William  Godwin  in  1793,  is  a 
severe  indictment  of  the  customs  and  institutions  of  England. 


^'Social  England,  Trail  and  Mann,  p.  665. 
''Thackeray,    The  Four  Georges. 


EARLY    INFLUENCES  27 

"Things  as  they  are,"  is  the  subtitle  of  the  work,  and  on  that 
account  an  outline  of  the  work  will  supplement  the  review  of 
society  already  given.  "C'a/e&  Williams/'  writes  Professor 
Dowden,  "is  the  one  novel  of  the  days  of  revolution  embodying 
the  new  doctrine  of  the  time  which  can  be  said  to  survive."-* 

In  the  first  preface  to  Caleb  Williatns  Godwin  saj^s  that  the 
story  is  "a  study  and  delineation  of  things  passing  in  the 
moral  world.  Its  object  is  to  show  that  the  spirit  and 
character  of  the  Government  intrudes  itself  into  every  rank 
of  society."  "Accordingly,"  he  writes,  "it  was  proposed  in  the 
invention  of  the  following  work  to  comprehend,  as  far  as  the 
progressive  nature  of  a  single  story  would  allow,  a  general 
review  of  the  modes  of  domestic  and  unrecorded  despotism  by 
which  man  becomes  the  destroyer  of  man." 

Caleb  Williams  shortly  after  the  death  of  his  father,  became 
secretary  of  Ferdinand  Falkland,  a  country  squire  living  in 
a  remote  county  of  England.  Mv.  Falkland's  mode  of  living 
was  very  recluse  and  solitary.  He  avoided  men  and  did  not 
seem  to  have  any  friends  in  whom  he  confided.  He  scarcely 
ever  smiled,  and  his  manners  plainly  showed  that  he  was 
troubled  and  unhappy.  He  was  considerate  to  others,  but  he 
never  showed  a  disposition  to  lay  aside  the  stateliness  and 
reserve  which  he  assumed.  Sometimes  he  was  hasty,  peevish, 
and  tyrannical,  and  would  even  lose  entirely  his  self-possession. 

]Mr.  Collins,  Falkland's  steward,  tells  Williams  that  their 
master  was  not  always  thus,  that  he  was  once  the  gayest  of 
the  gay.  In  response  to  Caleb's  entreaties,  Collins  unfolds 
as  much  as  he  knows  of  their  master's  history.  He  tells  him 
that  Mr.  Falkland  spent  several  years  abroad  and  distin- 
guished himself  wherever  he  went  by  deeds  of  gallantry  and 
virtue.  At  length  he  returned  to  England  with  the  intention 
of  spending  the  rest  of  his  days  on  his  estate.  His  nearest 
neighbor,  Barnabas  Tyrrel,  was  insupportably  arrogant,  tyran- 
nical to  his  inferiors  and  insolent  to  his  equals.  On  account  of 
his  wealth,  strength,  and  copiousness  of  speech  he  was  re- 
garded with  admiration  by  some,  but  with  awe  by  all.  The 
arrival  of  Mr.  Falkland  threatened  to  deprive  Tyrrel  of  his 
authority  and  commanding  position  in  the  community.    Tyrrel 


'The  French  Revolution  and  English  Literature,  p.  76. 


28  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

contemplated  the  progress  of  his  rival  with  hatred  and  aver- 
sion. The  dignity,  atfability,  and  kindness  of  Mr.  Falkland 
were  the  subject  of  everybody's  praise,  and  all  this  was  an 
insupportable  torment  to  Tyrrel. 

Emily  Melville,  Tyrrel's  cousin,  who  lived  with  him,  falls 
in  love  with  Falkland  and  consequently  incurs  her  patron's 
displeasure.  He  resolved  to  impose  an  uncouth,  boorish  youth 
on  her  as  a  husband.  She  is  imprisoned  in  her  room  for 
refusing,  and  is  saved  from  a  diabolical  plot  to  ruin  her 
through  the  timely  assistance  of  Falkland.  While  still  de- 
lirious and  suffering  from  the  ill-treatment  of  her  persecutor, 
Emily  was  arrested  and  cast  into  prison  by  Tyrrel  for  a 
debt  contracted  for  board  and  lodging  during  the  last  four- 
teen years.  Death  liberated  her  soon  afterwards  from  the 
persecutions  of  her  cousin. 

One  of  Tyrrel's  tenants,  Mr.  Hawkins,  incurred  hLs  master's 
displeasure,  and  he  and  his  faraih'  were  turned  out  of  house 
and  home.  The  laws  and  customs  of  the  countr}'  are  used  to 
oppress  the  victims.  Tenants  must  be  kept  in  their  places. 
The  presumption  is  that  they  are  in  the  wrong,  and  so  the 
unscrupulous  Tyrrel  had  no  difficulty  in  imi^risoning  the  son. 
Shelley  says:  ''That  in  questions  of  property  there  is  a  vague 
but  most  effective  favoritism  in  courts  of  law,  and,  among 
lawyers,  against  the  poor  to  the  advantage  of  the  rich — 
against  the  tenant  in  favour  of  the  landlord — against  the 
creditor  in  favour  of  the  debtor.''  (Prose,  Vol.  II,  p.  326.) 
Falkland  remonstrated  with  Tyrrel  for  this  piece  of  injustice, 
but  this  served  only  to  increase  Tyrrel's  hatred  of  him.  At 
length  the  crisis  came.  Tyrrel  is  driven  out  of  a  rural  as- 
sembly by  Falkland.  He  returned  soon  afterwards,  struck 
Falkland,  felled  him  to  the  earth,  and  kicked  him  in  the  pres- 
ence of  all.  Falkland  was  disgraced,  and  to  him  disgrace  was 
worse  than  death.  ''He  was  too  deeply  pervaded  with  the 
idle  and  groundless  romances  of  chivalry  ever  to  forget  the 
situation,  humiliating  and  dishonourable  according  to  his  idea, 
in  which  he  had  been  placed  upon  this  occasion.  To  be 
knocked  down,  cuffed,  kicked,  dragged  along  the  floor!  Sacred 
heaven,  the  memory  of  such  a  treatment  was  not  to  be  en- 
dured."    Next  morning  Mr.  Tyrrel  was   found  dead  in   the 


EARLY    INFLUENCES  29 

street,  having  been  murdered  at  a  short  distance  from  the 
assembly-house.  That  day  marked  the  beginning  of  that  mel- 
ancholy which  pursued  Falkland  in  after  years.  The  public 
disgrace  and  chastisement  that  had  been  imposed  upon  him 
were  not  the  whole  of  the  mischief  that  hapx)ened  to  the 
unfortunate  Falkland.  It  was  rumored  that  he  was  the 
murderer  of  his  antagonist.  He  was  examined  by  the  neigh- 
boring magistrates  and  acquitted.  It  was  absurd  to  imagine 
that  a  man  of  such  integrity  should  commit  such  an  atrocious 
crime.  Suspicion  then  fell  on  the  Hawkinses.  They  were 
tried,  condemned,  and  afterwards  executed.  From  thence- 
forward the  habits  of  Falkland  became  totally  different.  He 
now  became  a  rigid  recluse.  Everybody  respected  him  because 
of  his  benevolence,  but  his  stately  coldness  and  reserve  made 
it  impossible  for  those  about  him  to  regard  him  with  the 
familiarity  of  affection. 

Caleb  Williams  turned  all  these  particulars  over  and  over 
in  his  mind  and  began  to  suspect  that  Falkland  was  the  real 
murderer  of  Tyrrel.  His  curiosity  became  an  overpowering 
passion  which  was  ultimately  the  cause  of  all  his  misfor- 
tunes. Falkland  realizes  that  his  secretary  is  convinced  of 
his  guilt,  so  he  determines  to  silence  him  forever.  He  calls 
Williams  into  his  room  and  confesses  his  guilt  to  him.  Falk- 
land said  that  he  allowed  the  innocent  Hawkinses  to  die  be- 
cause he  could  not  sacrifice  his  fame.  He  would  leave  behind 
him  a  spotless  and  illustrious  name  even  should  it  be  at  the 
expense  of  the  death  and  misery  of  others.  He  then  told  Caleb 
that  if  ever  an  unguarded  word  escaped  from  his  lips  he  would 
pay  for  it  by  his  death  or  worse.  This  secret  was  a  constant 
source  of  torment  to  Williams.  Every  trifling  incident  made 
Falkland  suspicious  and  consequently  increased  the  misery  of 
his  secretary.  At  lengtli  Caleb  flees,  but  is  taken  back,  falsely 
accused  of  theft,  and  cast  into  prison.  In  all  this  Falkland 
contrives  to  manage  things  so  as  to  increase  his  reputation  for 
benevolence.  Williams  is  made  to  appear  an  ungrateful 
wretch.  The  impotence  of  the  law  to  secure  justice  to  the  weak 
is  only  equalled  by  the  wretchedness  of  the  prisons  to  which 
they  are  condemned.  "Thank  God,"  exclaims  the  Englishman, 
"we  have  no  Bastile!     Thank  God  with  us  no  man  can  be 


30  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

punished  without  a  crime!"  "Unthinking  wretch!"'  writes 
Godwin,  *'Is  that  a  country  of  liberty,  where  thousands  lan- 
guish in  dungeons  and  fetters?  Go,  go,  ignorant  fool!  and 
visit  the  scenes  of  our  prisons.  Witness  their  unwholesome- 
ness,  their  filth,  the  tyranny  of  their  governors,  the  misery*  of 
their  inmates !  After  that  show  me  the  man  shameless  enough 
to  triumi^h,  and  say  'England  has  no  Bastile!'  Is  there  any 
charge  so  frivolous,  upon  which  men  are  not  consigned  to  those 
detested  abodes?  Is  there  any  villainy  that  is  not  practiced 
by  justices  and  prosecutors,  etc.?'' 

Williams  tries  to  escape  from  prison  and  is  caught  in  the 
attempt.  He  was  then  treated  more  cruelly  than  ever.  He 
made  another  attempt  to  escai)e  and  was  successful.  The 
rest  of  the  novel  is  taken  up  with  an  account  of  all  that 
Williams  suffered  in  his  endeavors  to  keep  out  of  the  reach 
of  the  law.  He  falls  in  with  a  band  of  outlaws  whose  rude 
natural  virtues  are  contrasted  with  the  meanness  and  cor- 
ruption of  the  officers  of  the  law.  He  is  at  last  caught,  but 
Falkland,  to  make  himself  appear  magnanimous,  does  not 
press  the  charge  against  Williams.  Instead  he  persecutes 
Caleb  by  poisoning  people's  minds  against  him.  Everywhere 
Caleb  goes  he  is  followed  hj  an  emissary  of  Falkland  who 
contrives  to  convince  people  that  Williams  is  an  ungrateful 
scoundrel.  He  can  stand  the  persecution  no  longer  and  so 
determines  to  accuse  Falkland  of  the  murder  of  Tyrrel.  Wil- 
liams does  this  in  a  way  to  carry  conviction  to  his  hearers. 
Falkland  finally  breaks  down,  throws  himself  into  Williams' 
arms,  saying,  "All  my  prospects  are  concluded.  All  that  I 
most  ardently  desired  is  forever  frustrated.  I  have  spent  a 
life  of  the  basest  cruelty  to  cover  one  act  of  momentary  vice, 
and  to  protect  mj'self  against  the  prejudice  of  my  species,  .  .  . 
And  now  (turning  to  tlie  magistrates)  do  with  me  as  you 
please.  If,  however,  you  wish  to  punish  me,  you  must  be 
speedy  in  your  justice;  for,  as  rejuitation  was  the  blood  that 
warmed  my  heart,  so  I  feel  that  deatli  and  infamy  must  seize 
me  together."  He  survived  this  event  but  three  days.  "A 
nobler  spirit  than  Falkland's,''  Godwin  writes,  "lived  not 
among  the  sons  of  men.  Thy  intellectual  powers  were  truly 
sublime,  and  thy  bosom  burned  with  a  godlike  ambition.     But 


EARLY    INFLUENCES  31 

of  what  use  are  talents  and  sentiments  in  the  corrupt  wilder- 
ness of  human  society?  It  is  a  rank  and  rotten  soil,  from 
which  every  finer  shrub  draws  poison  as  it  grows.  Falkland ! 
thou  enteredst  upon  thy  career  with  the  purest  and  most 
laudable  intentions.  But  thou  ind)ibest  the  poison  of  chivalry 
with  thy  earliest  youth;  and  the  base  and  low-minded  envy 
that  met  thee  on  thj'  return  to  thy  native  seats,  operated  with 
this  poison  to  hurry  thee  into  madness.  .  .  ."  All  these  evils 
flow  from  Falkland's  standard  of  morals — and  his  is  the 
aristocratic,  traditional  one.  He  is  the  victim  of  the  false 
ideal  of  chivalry.  The  errors  of  Falkland,  Shelley  writes, 
''sprang  from  a  high  though  perverted  conception  of  human 
nature,  from  a  powerful  sympathy  with  his  species  and  from 
a  temper,  which  led  him  to  believe  that  the  very  reputation 
of  excellence  should  walk  among  mankind  unquestioned  and 
unassailed.'- 

Protests  against  this  condition  of  aft'airs  were  not  wantiug, 
it  is  true,  but  they  did  not  influence  men  to  any  great  extent. 
Cowper,  for  example,  criticizes  most  severely  the  luxury  and 
vices  of  his  age. 

Eank  abundance  breeds 
In  gross  and  pampered  cities,  sloth  and  lust 
And  wantonness  and  gluttonous  excess. 

He  deplores  the  corruption  in  church  and  state,  and  pleads 
for  a  return  to  religion.  In  the  Progress  of  Error  he  pictures 
Occidius  as 

A  cassock'd  huntsman  and  a  fiddling  priest, 
Himself  a  wanderer  from  the  narrow  way. 
His  silly  sheep,  what  wonder  if  they  stray. 

Although  he  lashes  the  follies  of  his  time  in  The  Task,  Table 
Talk,  and  Expostulation,  still  he  does  not  attack  the  institu- 
tions of  his  country  with  the  vehemence  characteristic  of  later 
writers.  His  poems  are  a  mild  expression  of  the  revolutionary 
spirit  that  was  then  gathering  strength. 

At  a  very  early  age  Shelley  showed  signs  of  hatred  for 
existing  institutions.  These  became  more  pronounced  as  lie 
grew  older,  until  they  finally  blazed  forth  in  Queen  Mah 
in  1813.     This  poem  is  considered  by  some  to  be  merely  a 


32  EARLY    IXFLUEXCES 

declamatory  pamphlet  iu  verse.  Shelley  himself  described  it 
at  one  time  as  '"villainous  trash."  Like  a  true  radical  he 
gathers  up  all  the  evils  of  society,  its  crimes,  misery,  and  op- 
pression, and  feels  them  so  keenly  that  he  makes  them  part 
of  his  own  being.  This  collected  lightning  he  discharged  in 
one  awful  flash  in  Queen  Mah. 

The  first  two  parts  of  this  poem  bear  a  striking  resemblance 
to  Volney's  Lcs  Ruines.^*  In  Queen  Mah  a  fairy  descends  and 
takes  up  lanthe's  soul  to  heaven  that  she  may  see  how  to  ac- 
complish the  great  end  for  which  she  lives,  and  that  she  may 
taste  that  x^eace  which  in  the  end  all  life  will  share.  lanthe 
merited  this  boon  because  she  vanquished  earth's  pride  and 
meanness  and  burst  "the  icy  chains  of  custom."  Volney's 
traveler  is  likewise  disengaged  from  his  body  and  conveyed  to 
the  upper  regions  by  a  Genius.  Many  consolations  await  him 
there  as  a  reward  for  his  unseltishness  and  desires  for  the 
happiness  of  mankind.  The  earth  is  plainly  visible  to  both 
Volney's  traveler  and  Shelley's  spirit,  lanthe,  and  its  throng- 
ing tliousands  seem  like  an  ant-hill's  citizens.  Volney's  trav- 
eler sees  but  a  few  remains  of  the  hundred  cities  which  once, 
flourished  in  Syria.  All  this  destruction  was  caused  by  cu^ud- 
ity.  In  the  same  way  the  Spirit  of  lanthe  finds  that  from 
England's  fertile  fields  to  the  burning  plains  where  Libyan 
monsters  dwell — 

Thou   canst   not   find   one   spot 
Whereon  no  city  stood. — Canto  II. 

lanthe  thanks  the  fairy  for  this  vision  of  the  past  and  says 
that  from  it  she  will  glean  a  warning  for  the  future 

So  that  man 

ilay  i)vofit  by  his  errors  and  derive 

Exjierience  from  liis  folly. 

Volney's  traveler  wonders  that  past  experience  has  not  taught 
mankind  a  lesson,  and  that  destruction  is  not  a  thing  of  the 
past.     The  Spirit,  in  Queen  Mai),  is  shown  the  miserable  life 
that  kings   live.     They   have   no  peace   of   mind;   even   their, 
"slumbers  are    but    varied    agonies."      They    are    heartless 


^Cf.   Hancock,  French  Revohition  and  English  Poets,  p.  56. 


EARLY    INFLUENCES  33 

wretches  whose  ears  are  deaf  to  the  shrieks  of  penury.  The 
fairy  says  that  kings  and  parasites  arose — 

From  vice,  black  loathsome  vice : 

From  rapine,  madness,  treachery,  and  wrong. 

This  is  somewhat  stronger  than  Volney's  dictum  that  paternal 
tyranny  laid  the  foundations  of  political  despotism.  Canto 
IV  of  Queen  Mah  contains  a  description  of  the  horrors  of  war. 
In  Lcs  Ruuies  there  is  an  account  of  the  war  between  Russia 
and  Turkey.  Both  attribute  this  horrible  evil  to  cupidity,  "the 
daughter  and  companion  of  ignorance."  Volney's  traveler  is 
then  vouchsafed  a  glimpse  of  the  "new  age"  when  Equality, 
Liberty,  and  Justice  will  reign  supreme.  The  final  chapters 
of  Les  Ruines  describe  a  disputation  between  the  doctors  of 
different  religions,  which  ends  in  convincing  the  people  that 
all  religions  are  false.  The  ministers  of  the  various  sects 
contradict  and  refute  one  another,  opposing  revelations  to 
revelations  and  miracles  to  miracles,  until  they  render  it  evi- 
dent that  they  are  all  deceived  or  deceivers.  Man  himself  is 
to  blame  for  having  been  duped.  Religion  exists  because  man 
is  superstitious  and  tolerates  the  imposition  of  priests.  "Thus, 
agitated  by  their  own  passions,  men,  whether  in  their  individ- 
ual capacity,  or  as  collective  bodies,  always  rapacious  and 
improvident  passing  from  tyranny  to  slavery,  from  pride  to 
abjectness,  from  presumption  to  despair,  have  been  them 
selves  the  eternal  instruments  of  their  misfortunes."-'  In 
the  notes  to  Queen  Mah,  Shelley  says  that  as  ignorance  of 
nature  gave  birth  to  gods  the  knowledge  of  nature  is  calculated 
to  destroy  them. 

But  now  contempt  is  mocking  thy  gray  hairs ; 

Thou  art  descending  to  the  dai-ksome  grave 

Unhouored  and  unpitied.  but  by  those 

^Vhose  i)ride  is  ])assing  l>y  like  thine. 

And  slieds  like  thine  a  ghire  that  fades  before  the  sun 

Of  Truth,  and  shines  but  in  the  dreadful  night 

That  long  has  lowered  above  the  ruined  world.'® 

The  third  part  of  Queen  Mah  contains  a  glowing  picture  of 
the  Golden  Age — of  the  world  as  it  will  be,  when  reason  will 


"Chapter  XI.  p.  66. 
"Canto  VI.  p.  23. 


M  EARLY    INFLUENCES 

be  the  sole  guide  of  men.  For  this  Shelley  is  indebted  mainly 
to  Godwin's  Political  Justice. 

For  his  denunciation  of  the  professions  Shelley  is  indebted 
to  the  Essay  on  "Trades  and  Professions"  in  Godwin's 
Enquirer.  With  regard  to  commerce,  Godwin  says  that  the 
introduction  of  barter  and  sale  into  society  was  followed  by 
vice  and  misery.  "Barter  and  sale  being  once  introduced,  the 
invention  of  a  circulating  medium  in  the  precious  metals 
gave  solidity  to  the  evil,  and  afforded  a  field  upon  which  for 
the  rapacity  and  selfishness  of  man  to  develop  all  their  refine- 
ments.""   Shelley  says : 

Commerce   has   set   the   mark   of   selfishness 
The  signet  of  its  all-enslaving  power 
Upon  a  shining  ore,  and  called  it  gold.-^ 

Godwin  expresses  his  opinion  of  merchants  as  follows : 
"There  is  no  being  on  the  face  of  the  earth  with  a  heart  more 
thoroughly  purged  from  every  remnant  of  the  weakness  of 
benevolence  and  sympathy. "^^ 

And  Shelley  writes : 

Commerce!  beneath  whose  poison-breathing  shade 
No  solitary  virtue  dares  to  spring, 

Shelley  says  that  soldiers — 

.  .  .  are  the  hired  bravos  who  defend 
The  tyrant's  throne — the  bullies  of  his  fear: 
These  are  the  sinks  and  channels  of  worst  vice, 
The  refuse  of  society,  the  dregs 
Of  all  that  is  most  vile,  etc. 

His  note  on  this  passage  was  taken  bodily  from  Essay  V 
of  Godwin's  Enquirer.  With  regard  to  clergymen,  Shelley  ex- 
presses his  opinion  thus : 

Then  grave  and  hoary-headed  hypocrites 
Without  a  hope,  a  passion,  or  a  love 
Who,  through  a  life  of  luxury  and  lies 
Have  crept  by  flattery  to  the  seats  of  power 
Support  the  system  whence  their  honors  flow 

Godwin's  verdict  is  not  so  severe.  "Clergymen,"  he  saj's, 
"are  timid  in  enquiry,  prejudiced  in  opinion,   cold,   formal, 

'"Queen  Mab. 

**The  Enquirer,  p.  174. 


'  EARLY    INFLIENCES  35 

the  slave  ol"  what  other  uieu  may  think  of  them,  rude,  dicta- 
torial, impatient  of  contradiction,  harsh  in  their  censures,  ami 
illiberal  in  their  judgments. 

Queen  Mob  then  is  a  fierce  diatribe  against  existing  institu- 
tions. It  contains  very  little  constructive  philosophy.  What 
value  has  it  for  mankind?  Does  it  serve  any  purpose  apart 
from  giving  pleasure  to  the  aesthetic  faculties?  It  assuredly 
does.  It  awakens  the  social  conscience.  The  first  step  for  the 
sinner  on  the  road  to  conversion  is  to  try  to  realize  the  sinful 
state  of  his  soul.  The  same  is  true  of  a  nation  in  need  of 
reform.  Unless  its  shortcomings  are  vividly  brought  home 
to  it,  reformation  will  never  take  place.  To  do  this  was  and 
still  is  the  work  of  Queen  MaJ).  It  laid  bare  the  weaknesses 
of  State  and  Church;  it  engendered  the  spirit  of  compassion 
and  thus  paved  the  way  for  reform. 


CHAPTER  II 

VIEWS    ON    MARRIAGE    AND   LOVB 

In  September,  1813,  Shelley  wrote  a  sonnet,  already  quoted, 
to  lanthe,  his  first  child,  in  which  he  says  that  the  babe  was 
dear  to  him  not  only  for  its  own  sweet  sake,  but  for  the 
mother's,  and  that  the  mother  had  grown  dearer  to  him  for 
the  babe's.  Hogg  informs  us,  however,  that  about  this  time  the 
ardor  of  Shelley's  affection  for  his  wife  was  beginning  to  cool. 
It  is  scarcely  correct  to  speak  of  the  ardor  of  his  affection, 
for  it  may  be  doubted  that  he  ever  loved  Harriet  very  ardently. 
If  he  had  been  seriously  in  love  with  his  wife,  he  would  not 
have  written  Miss  Hitchener  two  months  after  his  marriage 
that  he  loved  her  ''more  than  any  relation,"  and  that  she  was 
the  sister  of  his  soul.^°  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain 
that  in  1814  Shelley  and  his  wife  did  not  get  along  well 
together.  Harriet  was  beautiful  and  amiable,  and  adopted  in 
a  somewhat  parrot-like  manner  the  views  of  her  husband.  As 
she  grew  older  she  no  doubt  developed  tastes  more  in  keep- 
ing with  the  conventions  of  that  society  which  Shelley  de- 
tested. Professor  Dowden  suggests  that  motherhood  pro- 
duced in  her  character  a  change  that  did  not  harmonize  with 
her  husband's  idealism.  She  was  no  longer  an  ardent  school- 
girl, but  a  woman  who  has  found  out  that  one  must  grapple 
with  the  realities  of  life  in  some  way  more  practical  than  the 
one  hitherto  followed.  Her  sister  urged  her  to  look  for  the 
style  and  elegance  suitable  to  the  wife  of  a  prospective  baronet. 
This  was  repugnant  to  Shelley's  republican  simplicity.  "I 
have  often  thought,"  Peacock  writes,  "that,  if  Harriet  had 
nursed  her  own  child,  and  if  the  sister  had  not  lived  with 
them,  the  link  of  their  married  life  would  not  have  been  so 
readily  broken."  Harriet  sympathized  less  and  less  with  her 
husband's  aspirations,  and  as  a  consequence  Shelley  turned 
to  other  women  for  the  encouragement  and  inspiration  which 
he  once  got  from  his  wife.  He  spent  too  much  of  his  time 
in  the  company  of  the  Newtons,  Boinvilles,  and  Turners  to 


•"Letter,  Oct.  10,  1811.    Ingpen,  p.  142. 
36 


VIEWS   ON    MARRIAGE    AND    LOVE  37 

render  possible  the  retention  of  his  wife's  affections.  On  March 
IG,  1814,  Shelley  wrote  a  letter  to  Hogg,  wliich  plainly  shows 
that  he  found  no  happiness  in  his  home.  "I  have  been  staying 
with  Mrs.  Boinville  for  the  last  month;  I  have  escaped,  in 
the  society  of  all  that  friendship  and  philosophy  combine, 
from  the  dismaying  solitude  of  myself.  ...  I  have  sunk  into 
a  premature  old  age  of  exhaustion  .  .  .  Eliza  is  still  with  us — 
not  here! — but  (with  his  wife)  ...  I  certainly  hate  her  with 
all  my  heart  and  soul."  Shelley's  second  marriage  in  St. 
(leorge's  Church,  on  March  22,  does  not  throw  any  light  on 
the  relations  that  existed  between  himself  and  his  wife.  They 
celebrated  this  second  ceremony  simply  to  dispel  all  doubts 
concerning  the  validity  of  the  first  one  in  Edinburgh.  On 
April  18,  Mrs.  Boinville  wrote  to  Hogg  that  Shelley  was  at 
her  house,  that  Harriet  had  gone  to  town  (presumably  to  her 
father's),  and  that  Eliza  was  living  at  Southampton.  J.  C. 
Jeafferson  says  that  it  was  Shelley  who  deserted  Harriet  and 
not  Harriet,  Shelley.  According  to  this  biographer,  Shelley 
left  her  at  Binfield  on  May  18,  1814."  Shelley  still  hoped  to 
regain  his  wife's  love,  and  in  some  verses  inscribed,  *'To  Har- 
riet, 1814,"  he  appeals  pathetically  for  her  affection.  Harriet 
had  become  cold  and  proud,  and  refused  to  meet  his  advances 
toward  a  reconciliation.  Her  pride,  Shelley  believed,  was 
incompatible  with  virtue.  When  he  found  that  he  had  '^clasped 
a  shadow,"  his  anguish,  owing  to  his  great  sensitiveness,  was 
extreme.  Other  men  put  up  with  their  wives'  imperfections, 
and  why  could  not  Shelley  have  done  the  same?  It  must  be 
remembered,  though,  that  these  men  have  other  interests  to 
occupy  their  thoughts,  and  other  friends  to  give  them  the 
sympathy  and  love  denied  them  at  home.  This  was  not  the 
case  with  Shelley.  He  had  few  friends  and  many  enemies. 
It  should  not  surprise  us  then  to  find  him  snatching  at  the 
first  vision  "which  promised  him  the  longed-for  boon  of  human 
love."  This  vision  appeared  to  him  in  the  person  of  Mary 
Godwin. 

A  letter  from  Harriet  to  Hookham,  dated  July  7,  shows 
that  she  was  anxious  to  be  with  her  husband  again.  But  the 
time  for  reconciliation  had  passed.     Whenever  Shelley  hated 


"The  Real  Shelley,  Vol.  II,  p.  217. 


38  VIEWS  ON    MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

or  loved  anybody,  he  did  so  iuteusely.  Everybody  was  either 
an  angel  or  a  devil;  and  Harriet  had  ceased  to  be  an  angel. 
''Lilies  that  fester  smell  far  worse  than  weeds."  Dowden 
siijs  Shelley  persuaded  himself  that  Harriet  was  false  to  him 
and  had  given  her  heart  to  a  Mr.  Eyan.  There  is  no  ground 
for  the  charge  of  unfaithfulness,  as  Peacock,  Thornton  Hunt, 
and  Trelawny  bear  testimony  concerning  her  innocence. 

Shelley  believed  that  Harriet  had  ceased  to  love  him,  and 
that  he  was  consequently  free  to  contract  a  union  with  an- 
other. He  puts  forth  this  doctrine  in  the  notes  to  Queen  Mah. 
"A  husband  and  wife  ought  to  continue  so  long  united  as 
they  love  each  other.  .  .  .  There  is  nothing  immoral  in  this 
separation.  .  .  .  The  conviction  that  wedlock  is  indissoluble 
holds  out  the  strongest  of  all  temptations  to  the  perverse.  .  .  . 
Prostitution  is  the  legitimate  offspring  of  marriage."  He 
considered  marriage  a  useless  institution,  and  expressed  this 
view  in  St.  Irvyne.  "Say,  Eloise,  do  not  you  think  it  an  insult 
to  two  souls,  united  to  each  other  in  the  irrefragable  covenants 
of  love  and  congeniality,  to  promise  in  the  sight  of  a  Being 
whom  they  know  not,  that  iidelit}^  which  is  certain  other- 
wise." He  does  not  think  that  promiscuous  intercourse  will 
follow  the  abolition  of  marriage.  Love,  and  not  money,  hon- 
ors, or  convenience  will  be  the  bond  of  these  unions  when 
marriage  is  abolished,  and  this  will  result  in  more  faithfulness 
than  obtains  at  present.  ''The  parties  having  acted  upon 
selection  are  not  likely  to  forget  this  selection  when  the  inter- 
view is  over."^-  In  his  review  of  Hogg's  Memoirs  of  Prince 
Alexy  Haimatoff,  Shelley  regards  with  horror  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  tutor  to  Alexy  to  indulge  in  promiscuous  inter- 
course. "It  is  our  duty  to  protest  against  so  pernicious  and 
disgusting  an  opinion,"  In  a  letter  to  Hogg,  written  after 
the  latter's  attempt  to  seduce  Harriet,  we  find  the  following: 
"But  do  not  love  one  (Harriet)  who  can  not  return  it,  who  if 
she  could,  ought  to  stiffle  her  desire  to  do  so.  Love  is  not 
a  whirlwind  that  is  unvanquishable." 

Shelley's  views  on  marriage  agree  with  those  of  Godwin. 
They  both  looked  on  marriage  as  a  human  institution,  and 
consequently  thought  it  might  be  modified  or  abolished  en- 


'-Quoted  In  Shelley  und  die  frauen,  Maurer, 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND   LOVE  39 

tirely.  They  considered  happiness  man's  highest  good,  and 
nnhappiness  man's  only  evil.  S'ows  and  promises  are  immoral 
because  the  thing  promised  may  prove  at  any  time  detrimental 
to  one's  happiness.  For  this  reason  husband  and  wife  should 
not  bind  themselves  to  live  always  together.  This  doctrine 
appealed  to  Shelley  because  it  agreed  with  his  views  on  free- 
dom and  his  passion  for  opposing  the  traditions  of  society.^ 

Heretofore  it  has  been  found  convenient  to  lay  the^lame  ' 
for  all  the  radical  views  of  Shelley  at  the  door  of  Godwin. 
In  the  case  of  those  on  marriage  a  good  deal  of  the  blame 
must  be  borne  by  Sir  James  Lawrence. 

In  a  letter  to  Lawrence,  dated  August  17,  1812,  Shelley 
writes :  "Your  Empire  of  the  Naires,  which  I  read  this  spring, 
succeeded  in  making  me  a  perfect  convert  to  its  doctrines.  I 
then  retained  no  doubts  of  the  evils  of  marriage — Mrs.  Woll- 
stonecraft  reasons  too  well  for  that — but  I  had  been  dull 
enough  not  to  perceive  the  greatest  argument  against  it,  until 
developed  in  the  Naires,  prostitution  botli  legal  and  illegal." 
Hogg  says  that  Shelley  and  his  young  friends  read  Lawrence's 
tale  with  delight.^^  This  work,  intended  to  vindicate  the  rights 
of  women,  is  a  plea  for  free  love.  It  pictures  the  Kingdom 
of  the  Naires  as  a  Paradise  of  Love,  where  neither  jealousy 
nor  envy,  quarreling  nor  hatred,  have  any  place.  Infanticide 
and  the  sufferings  that  follow  in  the  wake  of  illicit  inter- 
course are  there  unknown.  "It  would  be  unjust  to  conclude," 
Lawrence  writes,  "that  every  voluntary  union  would  be  short- 
lived." He  claims  that,  although  constancy  is  no  merit  in 
itself,  still  it  obtains  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  Naires  to  a  greater 
extent  than  in  Europe.  "Know  ye  not  that  though  constancy 
is  no  merit  it  is  a  source  of  happiness ;  and  that  though  incon- 
stancy is  no  crime,  it  is  no  blessing  much  less  a  boast. "^* 
There  is  some  resemblance  between  this  and  the  following  from 
Shelley's  Notes  to  Queen  Mod:  "Constancy  has  nothing  vir 
tuous  in  itself  independently  of  the  pleasure  it  confers,  and 
partakes  of  the  temporizing  spirit  of  vice  in  proportion  as  it 
endures  tamely  moral  defects  of  magnitude  in  the  object  of  its 
indiscreet  choice."    In  another  place  Lawrence  writes:    "Two 


"Hogg's  Life,  p.  447. 

"The  Naires,  book  S,  p.  130. 


40  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

hearts  whom  love  with  its  loadstone  has  touched,  will  stick 
together,  nought  will  tear  asunder.  But  soon  as  the  magnetic 
power  has  ceased,  say,  why  should  wedlock  link  in  iron  fetters, 
superfluous  even  when  thej'^  are  not  vexatious,  those  bodies 
which  the  soul  of  love  has  left?"^-'  In  the  notes  to  Queen  Mob 
we  read — "A  husband  and  wife  ought  to  continue  so  long 
united  as  they  love  each  other;  any  law  which  should  bind 
them  to  cohabitation  for  one  moment  after  tlie  decay  of  their 
affection  would  be  a  most  intolerable  tyranny,  and  the  most 
unworthy  of  toleration."^*''  ^'Among  the  Naires  there  are 
neither  courtesans  nor  virgins,  for  the  two  extremes  are  equally 
unnatural  and  equally  detrimental  to  the  state.  Love  there 
shuns  not  the  light  of  the  sun,  nor  is  it,  as  in  Europe,  degraded 
as  a  vice,  nor  allied  to  infamy  and  guilt.'' 

Shelley  lived  at  a  time  when  the  marriage  ideal  was  not  held 
in  high  repute.  Lawrence  describes  many  kinds  of  abominable 
travesties  of  marriage.  In  Persia,  to  silence  the  scruples  of 
the  lustful,  "they  have  contrived  contracts  of  enjoyment  (for 
it  would  be  wicked  to  call  them  contracts  of  marriage)  for 
very  short  periods  of  time;  these  are  formally  signed  and 
countersigned,  and  many  priests  gain  tlieir  livelihood  by  giv- 
ing their  benediction  to  this  orthodox  prostitution.""  Mar- 
riage was  a  mere  formality  for  a  great  many.  In  France, 
Montesquieu  writes,  ''a  husband,  who  would  wish  to  keep  his 
wife  to  himself,  would  be  considered  a  disturber  of  the  public 
happiness,  and  as  a  madman  who  would  monopolise  the  light 
of  the  sun.  He  who  loves  his  own  wife,  is  one  who  is  not 
agreeable  enough  to  gain  the  affections  of  any  other  man's 
wife,  who  takes  advantage  of  a  law  to  make  amends  for  his 
own  want  of  amiability;  and  who  contributes,  as  far  as  lies 
in  his  power,  to  overturn  a  tacit  convention,  that  is  conducive 
to  the  happiness  of  both  sexes."^*  In  England  conditions  were 
no  better.  A  husband  might  consort  with  as  many  women 
as  he  chose  and  his  wife  could  get  no  redress.  In  Italy  and 
Spain,  the  inhabitants,  "too  fond  of  liberty  to  respect  the 
duties  of  marriage  and  too  attached  to  tlieir  names  to  suffer 


"Book  VI,  p.  239. 

"P.  797. 

"Book  XI  cf.  Chardius  Travels  in  Persia. 

"Persian  Letters.     Letter  55. 


VIBWS  ON    MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  41 

their  extinction,  require  only  representatives,  and  not  sons 
as  their  heirs.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  Naire  system  is  not 
known  to  them ;  but  cicesbeism  is  a  palliative  to  marriage  and 
an  ingenious  compromise  between  family  pride  and  natural 
independence,  and  it  is  better  to  be  inconsistent  and  happy 
than  unhappy  and  rational."^'' 

In  no  country  of  Europe  is  the  marriage  vow  kept.  Why 
not  then,  argued  Shelley,  abolish  this  institution  which  makes 
liypocrites  of  men?  "Marriage  is  the  tomb  of  love.  .  .  .  Two 
lovers  only  meet  when  in  good  humor,  or  when  resolved  to  be 
so;  a  married  couple  think  themselves  entitled  to  torment 
each  other  with  their  ill-humors.  When  a  lover  presents  a 
trifle  to  his  beloved,  she  receives  it  with  smiles;  when  a  hus- 
band makes  a  present  to  his  wife,  which  indeed  happens  sel- 
dom enough,  he  runs  the  risk  of  being  told  that  he  has  no 
taste,  or  that  she  could  have  bought  it  cheaper."" 

The  Empire  of  the  X a  ires  is  not  so  much  an  exposition  of 
the  free-love  system  of  the  Naires  as  a  grossly  distorted  and 
exaggerated  picture  of  the  miseries  that  follow  from  the  pres- 
ent system  of  regulating  tlie  relations  between  the  sexes  in 
the  different  countries  of  the  world.  Lawrence  draws  horrible 
pictures  of  miserj',  degradation,  and  even  murder  that  are 
a  consequence  of  our  opinions  on  love  and  marriage.  "When- 
ever women  are  treated  like  slaves,"  he  writes,  "they  act 
like  slaves  with  artitice  and  hypocricy."*^  Shelley  affirms 
that  "the  present  system  of  constraint  does  no  more,  in  the 
majoritj'  of  instances,  than  make  hypocrites  of  open  enemies."*'- 

LawM'ence  attributes  the  social  evil  to  the  existing  code  of 
morality.  If  a  girl  falls,  she  is  driven  from  her  home,  and 
the  only  road  then  open  to  her  is  that  which  leads  to  the 
brothel.  "Prostitution,"  says  Shelley,  "is  the  legitimate  off- 
spring of  marriage  and  its  accompanying  errors.  AVomen  for 
no  other  crime  than  having  followed  the  dictates  of  a  natural 
appetite  are  driven  with  fury  from  the  comforts  and  sympa- 
thies of  society.  Society  avenges  herself  on  the  criminals  of 
her  own  creation."*^ 


*»Naires,  Book  X,  p.  65. 

*»Book  X,  p.  86. 

*'The  Naires,  Book  VIII,  p.  108. 

"Notes  to  Queen  Mob. 

"Ibid. 


42  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

It  does  not  seem  that  Shelley  made  much  use  of  the  plot  or 
rather  of  the  different  incidents  of  the  Empire  of  the 
Naires.  However,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  indicate  the  slight 
resemblance  that  exists  between  the  story  of  Margaret  Mont- 
gomery and  that  of  Kosalind  in  Rosalind  and  Helen. 

Rosalind  loves  a  young  man  whom  she  is  about  to  marry. 
On  the  day  fixed  for  the  wedding,  her  father  returns  from 
a  distant  land  to  die,  and  informs  them  that  Rosalind  and 
her  lover  are  brother  and  sister. 

Hold,  hold ! 

He  cried !    I  tell  thee  'tis  her  brother ! 

Thy  mother,  boy,  beneath  the  sod 

Of  yon  churchyard  rests  in  her  shroud  so  cold; 

I  am  now  weak  and  pale,  and  old : 

We  were  once  dear  to  one  another, 

I  and  that  corpse !    Thou  art  our  child ! 

Her  betrothed  falls  dead  on  the  receipt  of  this  news.  Rosa- 
lind marries  another  who  uses  her  very  cruelly,  perhaps  be- 
cause she  gives  birth  to  an  illegitimate  child.  Her  husband 
dies,  and  his  will,  because  she  was  adulterous. 

Imported,  that  if  e'er  again 
1  sought  my  children  to  behold 

Or  in  my  birthplace  did  remain 

Beyond  three  days,  whose  hours  were  told, 

They  should  inherit  naught: 

In  The  Naires  Margaret  Montgomery  and  James  Forbes  had 
known  and  loved  each  other  from  childhood.  Shortly  before 
the  time  set  for  their  wedding,  James'  father  sent  a  letter 
to  Margaret's  father  breaking  off  the  marriage  in  the  most 
positive  terms.  The  latter's  pride  was  inflamed,  and  a  quarrel 
ensued  in  which  Forbes  was  mortally  wounded.  The  dying 
man  sent  for  Margaret  and  told  her  that  she  and  her  lover  are 
sister  and  brother,  that  he  and  not  Montgomery  was  her 
father,  and  hence  her  mother's  and  his  opposition  to  the 
marriage.  Margaret  is  enceinte,  and  her  reputed  father  turns 
her  out  of  doors.  Her  lover  is  killed  in  Naples.  A  friend 
sends  Margaret  some  money  during  her  stay  in  London.  Shel- 
ley makes  Rosalind,  who  has  been  dispossessed  too,  receive 
some  money  from  an  old  servant. 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  43 

Kosaliud  and  Margaret  are  separated  from  their  life-long 
friends  who  know — 

What  to  the  evil  world  is  due 
And  therefore  sternlj^  did  refuse 
to  link  themselves  with  the  infamy  of  ones  so  lost  as  their 
sinning  sisters.     In  both  cases  common  misery  reunites  them 
and  their  friends  again. 

In  May  or  June,  1814,  Shelley  became  acquainted  with  Mai7 
Godwin.  Her  father  described  her  as  being  "singularly  bold, 
somewhat  imperious,  and  active  in  mind;  her  desire  of  knowl- 
edge is  great,  and  her  perseverance  in  everything  she  under- 
takes almost  invincible."  She  was  brought  up  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  free  thought,  having  spent  most  of  her  girlhood  with 
Mr.  Baxter,  a  faithful  disciple  of  Godwin.  Shelley  and  Mary 
had  many  sympathies  in  common,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to 
find  them  soon  falling  in  love  with  each  other. 

Peacock  tells  us  that  Shelley  at  this  time  was  in  agony.  On 
the  one  hand  he  was  tormented  by  his  desire  to  treat  Harriet 
rightly,  and  on  tlie  other  by  his  passion  for  Mary.  Passion 
won  the  day,  and  on  July  28  Shelley  eloped  with  Mary  to  the 
Continent.  He  tried  to  ease  his  conscience  by  offering  Har- 
riet his  friendship  and  protection.  He  wrote  her  from  the 
Continent  and  urged  her  to  join  himself  and  Mary  in  Switzer- 
land. He  assured  her  that  she  would  find  in  him  a  firm, 
constant  friend  to  whom  her  interests  would  be  always  dear. 

While  passing  judgment  on  Shelley  one  should  not  forget 
that  he  simply  put  into  practice  those  doctrines  which  he  be- 
lieved to  be  true.  Neither  Shelley  nor  JMary  thought  they  were 
inflicting  any  wrong  on  Harriet  as  long  as  they  offered  her 
their  friendship  and  protection. 

In  September,  1814,  Shelley,  Mary  and  Jane  Clairmont, 
Mary's  half-sister,  settled  in  London.  About  this  time  he  was 
troubled  a  great  deal  with  money  embarrassments  and  was  in 
continual  hiding  from  the  bailiffs.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
year  he  read  ''the  tale  of  Godwin's  American  disciple  in 
romance,  Charles  Brockden  Brown. '"^*  ''Brown's  four  novels," 
says  Peacock,  "Schiller's  Robbers,  and  Goethe's  Faust,  were 
of  all  the  works  with  which  he  was  familiar  those  which 
took  the  deepest  root  in  Shelley's  mind  and  had  the  strongest 
influence  in  the  formation  of  his  character." 


*Dowden:    Life  of  Shelley,  Vol.  I.  p.  472. 


44  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

Brown's  most  important  novel,  Wieland,  is  a  gruesome  tale 
in  which  the  horrors  portrayed  owe  their  existence  to  the 
errors  of  the  sufferers.  Wieland,  a  very  religious  man, 
is  deceived  by  an  unscrupulous  ventriloquist  who  persuades 
him  that  a  voice  from  heaven  bids  him  sacrifice  the  life  of  his 
wife  and  four  children.  "If  Wieland  had  framed  juster 
notions  of  moral  duty,  and  of  the  divine  attributes;  or  if 
he  had  been  gifted  with  ordinary  equanimity  or  foresight,  the 
double  tongued  deceiver  would  have  been  baffled  and  repelled.*' 
This  is  the  doctrine  of  Shelley;  he  believed  that  the  evils  of 
societj^  were  man's  own  creation. 

Ye  princes  of  the  earth,  ye  sit  aghast 
Amid  the  ruin  which  yourselves  have  made. 
Yes,  Desolation  heard  your  trumpet's  blast, 
And  sprang  from  sleep.*^ 

Brown's  views  on  love  are  almost  as  radical  as  those  of 
Godwin.  Wieland's  sister  is  in  love  with  Pleyel,  and  is  anx- 
ious to  act  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  him  hope  and  at  the 
same  time  not  to  appear  too  forward.  "Time  was,"  she  says, 
"when  these  emotions  would  ])e  hidden  with  immeasurable 
solicitude  from  every  human  eye.  Alas !  these  airy  and  fleeting 
impulses  of  shame  are  gone.  My  scruples  were  preposterous 
and  criminal.  They  are  bred  in  all  hearts,  by  a  perverse  and 
vicious  education,  and  they  would  have  maintained  their 
place  in  my  heart  had  not  my  portion  been  set  in  misery.  My 
errors  liave  taught  me  thus  much  wisdom;  that  those  senti- 
ments whicli  we  ought  not  to  disclose  it  is  criminal  to  har- 
bor."*^ Shelley's  ideal  woman  would  hold  the  same  views.  He 
writes : 

And  women  too,  frank,  beautiful  and  kind  .  .  . 
.  .  .  From  custom's  evil  taint  exempt  and  pure 
Speaking  the  wisdom  once  they  could  not  think, 
Looking  emotions  once  they  feared  to  feel. 
And  changed  to  all  whicli  once  they  dared  not  be 
Yet,  being  now,  made  earth  like  heaven. 

In  May,  1816,  Shelley,  accompanied  by  Mary  and  Jane  Clair- 
raont,  started  for  Italy.  It  is  i)robable  that  the  undesirable 
state  of  Shelley's  health,  together  with  the  constant  begging 

*'The  Revolt  of  Islam,  Canto  XI,  st.  15. 
"Page  74. 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  45 

of  Godwin,  determined  them  to  leave  England.  J.  C.  Jeatfer- 
sou  maintains  that  Miss  Clairmont  persuaded  Slielley  to  accom- 
pany her  to  (iieneva,  where  slie  was  to  meet  Lord  Hyron.  It  is 
(jnite  certain  though  that  Mary  and  Shelley  were  ignorant  of 
Byron's  intrigue  with  Miss  Clairmont.  The  most  that  can  be 
said  is  that  Jane's  solicitations  may  have  hastened  their 
departure. 

In  September,  1816,  the  Shelleys  returned  to  London.  About 
a  mouth  afterwards  news  reached  them  that  Fanny  Imlay 
(Mary's  half-sister)  had  committed  suicide.  It  is  said  that 
love  for  Shelley  drove  her  to  despair.  In  December  Shelley 
was  seeking  for  Harriet,  of  whom  he  had  lost  trace  some  time 
previously.  On  December  10,  her  body  was  found  in  the  Ser- 
pentine. Very  little  is  known  of  the  life  she  led  after  her 
separation  from  Shelley.  Rumor  had  it  that  she  drank  heavily 
and  became  the  mistress  of  a  soldier,  who  deserted  her. 

It  may  be  that  ''in  all  Shelley  did,  he,  at  the  time  of  doing 
it,  believed  himself  justified  to  his  own  conscience,"  but  surely 
that  conscience  is  warped  which  finds  no  cause  for  remorse 
in  Shelley's  treatment  of  his  first  wife.  No  one  can  view  his 
self-complacency  and  assumption  of  righteousness  at  this  time 
without  feelings  of  detestation.  On  the  day  he  heard  the 
news  of  his  wife's  suicide  he  wrote  to  Mary:  ''Everything 
tends  to  prove,  however,  that  beyond  the  shock  of  so  hideous 
a  catastrophe  having  fallen  on  a  human  being  once  so  nearlj' 
connected  with  me,  there  would  in  any  case,  have  been  little 
to  regret."  "Little  to  regret"  save  the  shock  to  his  nerves. 
What  about  the  suffering  of  the  poor  woman  that  forced 
her  to  commit  such  a  terrible  deed? 

Shelley  claimed  his  children  from  the  Westbrooks,  but  the 
claim  was  denied.  The  children  were  committed  to  the  care 
of  a  Dr.  Hume,  of  Hanwell.  Lord  Eldon  gave  his  judgment 
against  Shelley  on  the  ground  that  Shellej^'s  opinions  led  to 
immoral  conduct.  Shelley  gave  vent  to  his  rage  in  sixteen 
vitriolic  stanzas,  which  he  addressed  to  the  Lord  Chancellor. 

During  his  residence  at  Marlow  on  the  Thames  in  1817, 
Shelley  wrote  The  Revolt  of  Islam,  which  was  first  published 
under  the  title  Laon  and  Gythna.  In  its  first  form  it  contained 
violent  attacks  on  theism  and  Christianity;  and  the  hero  and 


46  VIEWS  ox   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

heroine  were  brother  and  sister.  Oilier  refused  to  publish  it 
unless  everything  indicating  such  a  relationship  were  removed, 
and  Shelley  reluctantly  consented  to  make  the  necessary 
alterations. 

The  Revolt  of  Islam  opens  with  an  allegorical  myth  in  which 
the  strife  between  a  serpent  and  an  eagle — good  and  evil — is 
described.  While  the  poet  sympathizes  with  the  snake,  a 
mysterious  woman  (Asia  in  Prometheus  Unbound)  suddenly 
appears  and  conducts  him  to  heaven.  There  he  meets  Laon 
and  Cythna  who  recount  the  sufferings  which  made  them 
worthy  of  this  heavenly  place.  First  of  all,  Laon  tells  about 
his  love  for  Cythna,  who  is  described  as  a  shape  of  brightness 
moving  upon  the  earth.  S-he  mourned  with  him  over  the 
servitude — 

In  which  the  half  of  humankind  were  mewed, 

Victims  of  lust  and  hate,  the  slaves  of  slaves, 

She  mourned  that  grace  and  power  were  thrown  as  food 

To  the  hyena  lust,  who,  among  graves. 

Over  his  loathed  meal,  laughing  in  agony  raves.'*^ 

Cythna  determines  to  make  all  good  and  just.  By  the  force  of 
kindness  she  will  ^'disenchant  the  captives,"  and  ''then  millions 
of  slaves  shall  leap  in  joy  as  the  benumbing  cramp  of  ages  shall 
leave  their  limbs."  The  happiness  of  the  lovers  was  rudely  in- 
terrupted. Cythna  is  taken  away  by  the  emissaries  of  the 
tyrant  Othman ;  and  Laon,  who  killed  three  of  the  king's  slaves 
while  defending  her,  is  cast  into  prison.  A  hermit  sets  him 
free,  conveys  him  to  an  island,  and  supports  him  there  for 
seven  years.  During  all  of  this  time  Laon's  mind  is  deranged. 
He  recovers,  however,  and  then  they  both  embark  to  help  over- 
throw the  tyrant  Othman.  The  revolutionists  are  successful 
]»rincipally  because  of  the  influence  of  their  leader,  who  is  a 
woman,  Laone.  Such  is  the  strength  of  her  quiet  words  that 
none  dare  harm  her.  Tyrants  send  their  armed  slaves  to 
quell — 

Her  power,  they,  even  like  a  thundergust 

Caught  by  some  forest,  bend  beneath  the  spell 

Of  that  young  maiden's  speech,  and  to  their  chiefs  rebel.** 


"Canto  II.  St.  36. 
"Canto  IV,  St.  20. 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  47 

Some  of  the  revolutionists  demand  that  Othman  be  put  to 
death  for  his  crimes.  Laon  interposes  and  tells  them  that  if 
their  hearts  are  tried  in  the  true  love  of  freedom  they  should 
cease  to  dread  this  one  poor  lonely  man.  Here  is  Godwin's 
doctrine  again: 

The  chastened  will 
Of  virtue  sees  that  justice  is  the  light 
Of  love,  and  not  revenge  and  terror  and  despite.*^ 

That  same  night  the  tyrant  with  the  aid  of  a  foreign  army 
treacherously  attacks  the  revolutionists.  In  the  midst  of  the 
carnage 

A  black  Tartarian  horse  of  giant  frame 
Comes  trampling  o'er  the  dead;  the  living  bleed 
Beneath  the  hoofs  of  that  tremendous  steed 
On  which  like  to  an  angel  robed  in  white 
Sate  one  waving  a  sword.^" 

Needless  to  say,  this  is  Cythna  who  comes  to  rescue  Laon. 
They  both  flee  to  a  lonely  ruin  where  they  recount  to  each  other 
the  stories  of  their  sufferings.  Cythna  tells  that  she  was 
carried  to  a  submarine  cavern  by  order  of  the  tyrant,  and  that 
she  was  fed  there  by  an  eagle.  She  became  a  mother,  and  was 
comforted  for  a  while  by  the  caresses  of  her  child  until  it 
mysteriously  disappeared.  An  earthquake  changed  the  posi- 
tion of  the  cavern,  and  Cythna  is  rescued  by  some  passing 
sailors.  She  is  taken  to  the  city  of  Othman,  where  she  leads 
the  revolutionists  as  described  in  the  previous  cantos.  Want 
and  pestilence  follow  in  the  wake  of  massacre,  and  cause  awful 
misery.  An  Iberian  priest  in  whose  breast  ''hate  and  guile  lie 
watchful"  says  that  God  will  not  stay  the  plague  until  a  pyre 
is  built  and  Laon  and  Cythna  burned  upon  it.  An  immense 
reward  is  offered  for  their  capture.  The  person  who  brings 
them  both  alive  shall  espouse  the  princess  and  reign  with  the 
king.  A  stranger  comes  to  the  tyrant's  court  and  tells  them 
that  they  themselves  have  made  all  the  desolation  which  they 
bewail.  However,  he  cannot  expect  them  to  change  their  ways 
so  he  promises  to  betray  Laon  if  they  will  only  allow  Cythna 
to  go  to  America.    The  tyrant  agrees  to  the  stranger's  terms. 


"Canto  IV,  St.  34. 
"Canto  VI,  St.  19. 


48  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

who  then  tells  them  that  he  is  Laon  himself.  He  is  placed  upon 
the  altar,  and  as  the  torches  are  about  to  be  applied  to  it 
Cythna  appears  on  her  Tartarian  steed.  The  priest  urges  his 
comrades  to  seize  her,  but  the  king  has  scruples  about  breaking 
his  promise.  She  is  set  on  the  pyre,  however,  and  both  perish 
in  the  flames.    They  wake  reclining — 

On  the  waved  and  golden  sand 
Of  a  clear  pool,  upon  a  bank  o'ertwined 
With  strange  and  star-bright  flowers,  which  to  the  wind 
Breathed  divine  odour.^^ 

A  boat  approaches  them  with  an  angel  (Cythna's  child)  in 
it.  They  are  all  carried  in  this  "curved  shell  of  hollow  pearl" 
to  a  haven  of  rest  and  joy. 

This  disconnected  story  serves  as  a  vehicle  to  convej'  ex- 
hortations regarding  liberty  and  justice.  Thus,  during  the 
voyage  from  the  cavern  to  Othmau's  city,  Cythna  delivers  an 
address  to  the  sailors  which  contains  some  of  the  best  passages 
in  the  poem.    She  tells  them  for  example: 

To  feel  the  peace  of  self-contentment's  lot. 

To  own  all  sympathies,  and  outrage  none. 

And  in  the  inmost  bowers  of  sense  and  thought. 

Until  life's  sunny  day  is  quite  gone  down, 

To  sit  and  smile  with  Joy,  or,  not  alone 

To  kiss  salt  tears  from  the  worn  cheek  of  woe ; 

To  live  as  if  to  love  and  live  were  one ; 

This  is  not  faith  or  law,  nor  those  who  bow 

To  thrones  on  Heaven  or  Earth  such  destiny  may  know.^^ 

The  poem  aims  at  kindling  a  virtuous  enthusiasm  for  the 
doctrines  of  liberty  and  equal  rights  to  all.  "It  is  a  series  of 
pictures  illustrating  the  growth  and  progress  of  individual 
mind  aspiring  after  excellence"  and  the  regeneration  of 
humanity.  Laon  is  the  expression  of  ideal  devotion  to  the 
happiness  of  mankind ;  and  Cythna  is  a  type  of  the  new  woman, 
"the  free,  equal,  fearless  companion  of  man."  The  poem 
depicts  "the  awakening  of  an  immense  nation  from  their 
slavery  and  degradation  to  a  true  sense  of  moral  dignity  and 
freedom;  the  tranquillity  of  successful  patriotism  and  the  uni- 

»'Canto  XII,  18. 
"Canto  VIII.  8t.  12. 


VIEWS  ON  MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  49 

versal  toleration  and  benevolence  of  true  philanthropy."  It 
concludes  by  showing  that  the  triumph  of  oppression  is  tem- 
porary and  a  sure  pledge  of  its  inevitable  fall. 

So  much  attention  is  here  given  to  The  Revolt  of  Islam  be- 
cause of  the  influence  on  it  of  a  love  story — The  Missionary, 
by  Miss  Owenson — an  influence  which  up  to  the  present  has 
escaped  the  notice  of  Shelley  students.^^  In  a  letter  to  Hogg, 
dated  June  27,  1811,  Shelley  writes  "the  only  thing  that  has 
interested  me,  if  I  except  your  letters,  has  been  one  novel.  It  is 
Miss  Owenson's  Missionary,  an  Indian  tale;  will  you  read  it? 
It  is  really  a  divine  thing;  Luxima,  the  Indian,  is  an  angel. 
What  a  pity  we  cannot  incorporate  these  creatures  of  fancy; 
the  very  thoughts  of  them  thrill  the  soul!  Since  I  have  read 
this  book,  I  have  read  no  other."^*  This  tale  is  a  very  striking 
one,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  Shelley  made  its  philosophy  his 
own.  The  descriptions  are  so  vivid,  the  tale  so  simple,  and  the 
experiences  recorded  apparently  so  true,  that  it  takes  a  ma- 
turer  mind  than  Shelley's  to  lay  bare  the  fallacies  of  the  work 
and  to  unmask  its  half  truths.  No  outline  of  the  story  can  give 
an  idea  of  its  strength.  In  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  Hilarion  Count  d'Acugna  of  the  royal  house  of 
Braganza  joins  the  Franciscans,  and  on  account  of  his  zeal 
and  piety  is  known  as  "the  man  without  a  fault."  He  is  full 
of  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  souls  and  goes  to  India  to  convert 
pagans  to  Christianity.  "Devoted  to  a  higher  communion  his 
soul  only  stooped  from  heaven  to  earth,  to  relieve  the  sufifer- 
ings  he  pitied,  or  to  correct  the  errors  he  condemned ;  to  sub- 
stitute peace  for  animosity  ...  to  watch,  to  pray,  to  fast,  to 
suffer  for  all.  Such  was  the  occupation  of  a  life,  active  as  it 
was  sinless."  Passages  like  the  above  serve  as  sugar  coating 
for  the  following:  "Hitherto  the  life  of  the  young  monk 
resembled  the  pure  and  holy  dream  of  saintly  slumbers,  for  it 

""Toutes  les  sources  de  "Laon  and  Cythna"  n'ont  pas  ete  explorees: 
celles  qui  I'ont  ete  paraissent  peu  sures  et  peu  Importantes:  la  fete  de 
la  Federation  du  V  e  chant  rappelle  son  modele  francais,  et  I'ideale 
peinture  des  Ruines  de  Volney;  la  grotte  on  Cythna  est  enchain§e — 
comme  la  caverne  d'Asia  dans  Promethee  pent  etre  due  a  un  souvenir 
de  The  Cave  of  Fancy  de  Mary  Wollstonecraft;  16s  echos  de  Byron, 
et  certains  pretendent  de  I'lmagination  de  notre  Delille  semblent  peu 
discernables." — Koszul,  La  Jeunesse  de  Shelley,  1910,  p.  366. 

"Hogg's  Lile  of  Shelley,  ed.  1906,  p.  233. 


50  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

was  still  a  dream;  splendid  indeed,  bnt  unsubstantial,  dead 
to  all  those  ties  which  constitute  at  once  the  charm  and  the 
anxiety  of  existence,  which  agitate  while  they  bless  the  life  of 
man,  the  spring  of  human  affection  lay  untouched  within  his 
bosom  and  the  faculty  of  human  reason  unused  within  his 
mind.  .  .  .  Yet  these  feelings  though  unexercised  were  not 
extinct;  they  betrayed  their  existence  even  in  the  torpid  life 
he  had  chosen,  etc."  The  missionary  spends  some  time  at 
Lahore  studying  the  dialects  of  Upper  India  under  the  tutel- 
age of  a  Pundit.  During  his  stay  there  the  Guru  of  Cashmere 
comes  to  Lahore  for  the  ceremony  of  Upaseyda.  He  is  ac- 
companied by  his  beautiful  and  accomplished  granddaughter, 
Luxima,  the  Prophetess  and  Brachmachira  of  Cashmere. 

The  Pundit  tells  the  missionary  about  the  wonderful  in- 
fluence that  the  Guru's  granddaughter,  Luxima,  has  over  the 
people  of  the  place,  just  as  the  old  man  of  The  Revolt  of  Islam, 
who  represents  Shelley's  teacher,  Dr.  Lind,  tells  Laon  about 
the  extraordinary  influence  of  Cythna  on  the  people  she  meets. 
''The  Indians  of  the  most  distinguished  rank  drew  back  as  she 
approached  lest  their  very  breath  should  pollute  that  region 
of  purity  her  respiration  consecrated,  and  the  odour  of  the 
sacred  flowers,  by  which  she  was  adorned,  was  inhaled  with  an 
eager  devotion,  as  if  it  purified  the  soul  it  almost  seemed  to 
penetrate."  The  Pundit  says  that  "her  beauty,  her  enthusiasm, 
her  graces,  and  her  genius,  alike  capacitate  her  to  propagate 
and  support  the  errors  of  which  she  herself  is  the  victim."  The 
old  man  tells  Laon  that  Cythna — 

Paves  her  path  with  human  hearts,  and  o'er  it  flings 
The  wildering  gloom  of  her  immeasurable  wings. 

At  the  ceremony  of  Upaseyda,  which  the  Guru  holds,  dis- 
putants of  various  sects  put  forth  the  claims  of  their  respective 
religions.  "'A  devotee  of  the  Musuavi  sect  took  the  lead;  he 
praised  the  mysteries  of  the  Bhagavat,  and  explained  the  pro- 
found allegory  of  the  six  Ilagas.  ...  A  disciple  of  the 
Vedanti  school  spoke  of  the  transports  of  mystic  love,  and 
maintained  the  existence  of  spirit  only;  while  a  follower  of 
Buddha  supported  the  doctrine  of  matter,  etc."  The  mission- 
ary takes  advantage  of  this  opportunity  to  tell  them  about 


VIEWS  ON   MAURIAGE  AND  LOVE  51 

Christianity.  ^'Tlie  impression  of  his  appearance  was  decisive, 
it  sank  at  once  to  the  sonl ;  and  he  imposed  conviction  on  the 
senses,  ere  he  made  his  claim  on  the  understanding.  .  .  .  He 
ceased  to  speak  and  all  was  still  as  death.  His  hands  were 
folded  on  his  bosom,  to  which  his  crucifix  was  pressed;  his 
eyes  were  cast  in  meekness  on  the  earth;  but  the  fire  of  his 
zeal  still  played  like  a  ray  from  heaven  on  his  brow."  This 
reminds  one  at  once  of  Canto  IX,  of  The  Revolt  of  Islam : 

And  Oromaze,  Joshua,  and  Mahomet, 

Moses  and  Buddah,  Zerdhust  and  Brahm  and  Foh, 

A  tumult  of  strange  names,  which  never  met 

Before,  as  watchwords  of  a  single  woe. 

Arose;  each  raging  votary  'gan  to  throw 

Aloft  his  armed  hands,  and  each  did  howl 

"Our  God  alone  is  God !" — And  slaughter  now 

Would  have  gone  forth,  when  from  beneath  a  cowl 

A  voice  came  forth,  which  pierced  like  ice  through  every  soul. 

'Twas  an  Iberian  priest  from  whom  it  came 

A  zealous  man,  who  led  the  legioned  west, 

With  words  which  faith  and  pride  had  stopped  in  flame, 

To  quell  the  unbelievers  .  .  . 

He  ceased,  and  they 
A  space  stood  silent,  as  far,  far  away 
The  echoes  of  his  voice  among  them  died ; 
And  he  knelt  down  upon  the  dust,  alway 
Muttering  the  curses  of  his  speechless  pride. 

There  is  a  striking  resemblance  between  this  cowled  Iberian 
priest  and  the  Iberian  Franciscan  of  The  Missionary. 

The  missionary  looked  to  the  conversion  of  the  prophetess  as 
the  most  effectual  means  of  accomplishing  the  conversion  of 
the  nation.  With  this  end  in  view  he  goes  to  Cashmere,  and 
unexpectedly  comes  upon  Luxima  one  morning,  praying  at  a 
shrine.  ''Silently  gazing  in  wonder  upon  each  other,  they 
stood  finely  opposed,  the  noblest  specimens  of  the  human 
species  .  .  .  ;  she,  like  the  East,  lovely  and  luxuriant ;  he,  like 
the  West,  lofty  and  commanding;  the  one,  radiant  in  all  the 
luster,  attractive  in  all  the  softness  which  distinguishes  her 
native  regions;  the  other,  towering  in  all  the  energy,  which 
marks  his  ruder  latitudes."    They  meet  again  and  again,  and 


52  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

the  result  is  they  fall  in  love  with  each  other.  It  is  significant 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  influence  of  the  Missionary  that  in 
Alastor  Shelley  meets  his  ideal  love  "in  the  vale  of  Cashmire." 
The  way  the  novelist  develops  the  progress  of  this  sentiment, 
which  both  the  priest  and  the  priestess  had  vowed  to  suppress, 
can  sacrcely  be  surpassed.  She  describes  how  their  new  mode 
of  feeling  was  opposed  by  their  ancient  habits  of  thinking,  and 
how  their  minds  "struggling  between  a  natural  bliss  and  a 
religious  principle  of  resistance,  between  a  passionate  senti- 
ment and  an  habitual  self-command,  become  a  scene  of  conflict 
and  agitation." 

Old  age  with  its  gray  hair. 
And  wrinkled  legends  of  unworthy  things 
And  icy  sneers  is  nought ;  it  cannot  dare 
To  burst  the  chains  which  life  forever  flings 
On  the  entangled  soul's  aspiring  wings.^^ 

Luxima  succumbed  to  the  warfare.  She  overcame  the  tradi- 
tions and  laws  by  which  she  was  bound;  and  hence  Shelley's 
great  admiration  for  her.  She  embraced  Christianity  less  in 
faith  than  in  love.  She  did  not  feel  guilty  because  she  thought 
her  sentiments  of  love  were  true  to  all  life's  natural  impulses. 
The  missionary,  on  the  other  hand,  must  have  excited  in 
Shelley  pity  for  the  man  and  hatred  for  the  institutions  which 
stood  in  the  way  of  their  happiness.  "He  had  not,  indeed, 
relinquished  a  single  principle  of  his  moral  feeling — he  had  not 
yet  vanquished  a  single  prejudice  of  his  monastic  education; 
to  feel,  was  still  with  him  to  be  weak ;  to  love,  a  crime ;  and  to 
resist,  perfection."  Luxima  is  excommunicated,  deprived  of 
caste  and  declared  a  wanderer  and  an  outcast  upon  the  earth. 
They  both  elude  their  pursuers  and  join  a  caravan  which  is 
on  its  way  to  Tatta.  On  their  journey  the  missionary  tells  her 
that  they  must  soon  separate,  as  duty  demands  that  he  con- 
tinue the  work  of  his  ministry.  He  will  see  to  it  that  she  is 
well  cared  for  in  a  convent  at  Tatta.  Luxima  upbraids  him 
for  his  selfishness.  He  replies  that  it  is  not  the  prospect  of 
his  degradation  and  humiliation  which  deters  him  from  stay- 
ing with  her,  but  the  thought  that  by  so  doing  he  will  commit 
a  crime — break  his  vows.     "Pity  then,"  the  missionary  says, 

"The  Revolt,  Canto  II,  st.  33. 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  53 

"and  yet  respect  him  who,  loving  thee  and  virtue  equally,  can 
never  know  happiness  without  nor  with  thee — who  thus  con- 
demned to  sufifer  without  ceasing  submits  not  to  his  fate,  but 
is  overpowered  by  its  tyranny,  and  who  alike  helpless  and  un- 
resigned  opposes  while  he  suffers  and  repines  while  he 
endures."  Continency  was  unintelligible  to  Shelley,  and  he 
criticizes  it  in  Canto  XII  as  follows: 

.  .  .  that  sudden  rout 
One  checked  who  never  in  his  mildest  dreams 
Felt  awe  from  grace  or  loveliness,  the  seams 
Of  his  rent  heart  so  hard  and  cold  a  creed 
Had  seared  with  blistering  ice ;  but  he  misdeems 
That  he  is  wise  whose  wounds  do  only  bleed 
Only  for  self ;  thus  thought  the  Iberian  priest  indeed 

And  others  too  thought  he  was  wise  to  see 
In  pain  and  fear  and  hate  something  divine; 
In  love  and  beauty  no  divinity. 

Shelley  believed  that  "the  worthiness  of  every  action  is  to 
be  estimated  by  the  quantity  of  pleasurable  sensation  it  is 
calculated  to  produce,"^^  that  the  ideal  of  man  was  to  love  and 
to  be  loved.  Luxima  says :  "Be  that  heaven  my  witness  that  I 
would  not  for  the  happiness  I  have  abandoned  and  the  glory  I 
have  lost,  resign  that  desert  whose  perilous  solitudes  I  share 
with  thee.  Oh!  my  Father,  and  my  friend,  thou  alone  hast 
taught  me  to  know  that  the  paradise  of  woman  is  the  creation 
of  her  heart;  that  it  is  not  the  light  or  air  of  heaven,  though 
beaming  brightness  and  breathing  fragrance,  nor  all  that  is 
loveliest  in  Nature's  scenes,  which  form  the  sphere  of  her 
existence  and  enjoyment !  It  is  alone  the  presence  of  him  she 
loves;  it  is  that  mysterious  sentiment  of  the  heart  which  dif- 
fuses a  finer  sense  of  life  through  the  whole  being;  and  which 
resembles,  in  its  singleness  and  simplicity,  the  primordial  idea 
which  in  the  religion  of  my  fathers  is  supposed  to  have  pre- 
ceded time  and  worlds,  and  from  which  all  created  good  has 
emanated."^^ 

In  the  preface  to  The  Revolt  of  Islam  Shelley  writes  that  he 
"sought  to  enlist  the  harmony  of  metrical  language  .  .  .  and 
tlie  rapid  and  subtle  transitions  of  human  passion  in  the  cause 


"Xotes  to  Qtieeyi  Mai). 
"V.  210. 


54 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 


of  a  liberal  and  comprehensive  morality."  For  this  purpose 
he  chose  ''a  story  of  human  passion  in  its  most  universal 
character,  diversified  with  moving  and  romantic  adventures 
and  appeal,  in  contempt  of  all  artificial  opinions  or  institu- 
tions to  the  common  sympathies  of  every  human  breast.  What 
is  the  Missionary  but  "a  story  of  human  passion  appealing  in 
contempt  of  all  artificial  opinions  or  institutions  to  the  com- 
mon sympathies  of  every  human  heart?"  When  The  Revolt 
of  Islam  first  appeared,  Laon  and  Cythna  were  brother  and 
sister.  Their  love  like  that  of  the  missionary  and  priestess 
is  considered  illicit.  Not  only  are  the  motifs  of  both  very 
similar,  but  many  of  the  incidents  are  identical.  The  influ- 
ence of  the  Missionary  on  the  Revolt  will  perhaps  appear  more 
clearly  if  we  put  these  incidents  in  parallel  columns.  In  the 
second  canto — 


Laon  and  Cythna  must  part 
that  they  may  spread  their  doc- 
trines among  men. 

Cythna  says: 

"We  part!    O  Laon,  I  must  dare, 

nor  tremble 
To  meet  those  looks  no  more! 
Oh   heavy   stroke 
Sweet    brother    of   my    soul!    can 

I  dissemble 
The    agony   of    this    thought?" 


When  the  missionary  tells  Lux- 
ima  that  they  must  separate,  in 
order  that  he  may  continue  the 
work  of  his  ministry,  Luxima 
says  she  will  not  long  endure  the 
agony  of  separation.  "Thinkest 
thou,"  she  exclaims,  "that  I  shall 
long  survive  his  loss  for  whom  I 
have  sacrificed   all?" 


Laon  and  Cythna  are  seized  by 
the  officers  of  the  State,  and  dur- 
ing the  struggle  Laon  overcomes 
three  of  the  tyrant's  soldiers  in 
defense  of  Cythna. 


The  missionary  and  Luxima  are 
seized  by  the  officers  of  the  In- 
quisition, and  the  missionary  over- 
comes three  soldiers  in  defense 
of  Luxima. 


" — a  feeble  shiek 
It  was  a  feeble  shriek,  faint,  far, 

and  low 
Arrested  me — my  mien  grew  calm 

and   meek, — 
'Twas  Cythna's  cry." 

After  the  overthrow  of  the  ty- 
rant Othman  the  people  demand 
that  he  be  put  to  death. 


"But  the  ieehle  plaints  of  Lux- 
ima, who  was  borne  away  in  thb 
arms  of  one  of  the  assailants  re- 
called to  his  bewildered  mind  a 
consciousness  of  their  mutual  suf- 
ferings and  situations." 

Their  fellow  travelers  boldly  ad- 
vanced to  rescue  the  missionary 
and  Luxima,  and  awaiting  his  or- 
ders, asked:  "Shall  we  throw 
those  men  under  the  camels'  feet 
or  shall  we  bind  them  to  those 
rocks  and  leave  them  to  their 
fate?" 


VIEWS  ON   MAUUIAGP:  AM)  LOVE 


55 


Laon  answers: 
'*  'What   do   ye   seek?     What    fear 

ye,'  then  I  cried, 
Suddenly  starting  forth,   'that  ye 

should  shed 
The   blood    of   Othman?     If   your 

hearts  are  tried 
In  the  true  love  of  freedom  cease 

to  dread 
This  one  poor  lonely  man.'  " 


From  his  prison  Laon  sees  a 
ship  sailing  by  in  which  he  thinks 
Cythna  is  imprisoned. 

"I  knew  that  ship  bore  Cythna 
o'er  the  plain 

Of  waters,  to  her  blighting  slavery 
sold 

And  watched  it  with  such 
thoughts  as  must  remain  un- 
told." 

Cythna  is  imprisoned  in  a  cav- 
ern, and  her  mind  is  deranged 
for  a  time. 

"The  fiend  of  madness  which  had 

made  its  prey 
Of  my   poor   heart  was   lulled   to 

sleep  awhile." 

The  part  taken  by  Laon  and 
Cythna  in  the  insurrection  of  the 
people  has  already  been  explained. 

Laon  and  Cythna  are  condemned 
to  death  through  the  instigation 
of  the  priests. 

The  morning  of  Laon's  execu- 
tion   has    arrived. 

"And    see    beneath    a     sun-bright 

canopy. 
Upon   a   platform   level   with   the 

pile, 
The  anxious  Tyrant  sit  enthroned 

on  high 
Girt  by  the  chieftans  of  the  host. 

There  was  silence  through  the  host 

as  when 
An  earthquake  trampling  on  some 

populous  town, 
Has     crusht    ten     thousand    with 

one  tread,  and  men 
Expect  the  second. 


"The  missionary  cast  on  them  a 
glance  of  pity  and  contempt  and 
looking  round  him  with  an  air  at 
once  dignified  and  grateful,  he 
said:  'My  friends,  my  heart  is 
deeply  touched  by  your  generous 
sympathy;  good  and  grave  men 
ever  unite,  of  whatever  religion 
or  whatever  faith  they  may  be; 
but  I  belong  to  a  religion  whose 
spirit  is  to  save,  not  to  destroy; 
suffer  these  men  to  live;  they  are 
but  the  agents  of  a  higher  power 
whose  scrutiny  they  challenge  me 
to  meet.' " 

On  the  way  to  Goa  the  mission- 
ary notices  a  covered  conveyance 
going  by  in  which  he  feels  sure 
Luxima  is  imprisoned.  "He  shud- 
dered and  for  a  moment  the  he- 
roism of  virtue  deserted  him.  He 
doubted  not  that  she  would  be 
conveyed  in  the  same  vessel  with 
him  to  Goa." 


Luxima  is  imprisoned  in  a  con- 
vent at  Lahore.  The  exciting  in- 
cidents of  their  arrest  and  sepa- 
ration had  deranged  her  mind  for 
a  time. 


The  natives  are  on  the  point  of 
rebelling,  and  Spanish  authority 
in  India  is  on  the  brink  of  ex- 
tinction. The  missionary  is  con- 
demned to  death,  by  the  Inquisi- 
tion. The  morning  of  the  mis- 
sionary's execution  has  arrived. 

"The  secular  judges  had  al- 
ready taken  their  seats  on  the 
platform,  the  Grand  Inquisitor 
and  the  Viceroy  had  placed  them- 
selves beneath  their  respective 
canopies."  The  Christian  mission- 
ary is  led  to  the  pile,  "the  silence 
which  helongs  to  death  reigned  on 
every  side;  thousands  of  persons 
were  present;  .  .  .  Nature  was 
touched  on  the  master  spring  of 
emotion,  and  betrayed  in  the  looks 
of  the  multitude  feelings  of  hor- 
ror, of  pity,  and  of  admiration, 
which  the  bigoted  vigilance  of  an 
inhuman  zeal  would  in  vain  have 
sought  to  suppress. 


56 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 


Tumult    was    in    the    soul    of   all 

beside, 
111    joy,     or    doubt,    or    fear;    but 

those  who  saw 
Their    tranquil    victim    pass    felt 

wonder   glide, 
Into  their  brain,  and  became  calm 

with  awe." 

As  burning  torches  are  about 
to  be  applied  to  the  pyre  on  which 
Laon  is  to  die,  a  steed  bursts 
through  the  rank  of  the  people  on 
which  a  woman  sits. 

"Fairer,  it  seems  than  aught  that 
earth  can  breed, 

Calm,  radiant,  like  a  phantom  of 
the  dawn. 

A  spirit  from  the  caves  of  day- 
light wandering  gone. 

All  thought  it  was  God's  Angel 
come  to  sweep 

The  lingering  guilty  to  their  fiery 
grave. 


Cythna  has    come   not   to    save 
Laon  but  to  die  with  him. 
At  the  sight  of  Cythna 

"They   pause,    they    blush,     they 
gaze — a  gathering  shout 

Bursts    like   one   sound    from    the 
ten  thousand  streams 

Of  a  tempestuous  saa." 

(All  through  the  poem  Cythna 

exerts  a  wonderful  influence  over 

the  people.) 


On  the  day  of  the  execution 
Luxima  noticed  a  procession  mov- 
ing beneath  her  window  and  her 
eyes  rested  on  the  form  of  the 
missionary.  "She  beheld  the 
friend  of  her  soul;  love  and  rea- 
son returned  together."  She  es- 
capes the  vigilance  of  her  guar- 
dian, and  seeks  the  place  where 
her  beloved  is  to  die.  "While  offi- 
cers were  binding  the  missionary 
to  the  stake  "a  form  scared}/  hu- 
man darting  with  the  velocity  of 
lightning  through  the  multitude 
reached  the  foot  of  the  pile  and 
stood  before  it  in  a  grand  and 
aspiring  attitude.  .  .  .  thus  bright 
and  ae7-ial  as  it  stood,  it  looked 
like  a  spirit  sent  from  heaven 
in  the  awful  moment  of  dissolu- 
tion to  cheer  and  to  convey  to  the 
regions  of  the  blessed,  the  soul 
which  would  soon  arise  pure  from 
the  ordeal  of  earthly  sufferings. 
The  sudden  appearance  of  the 
singular  phantom  struck  the  im- 
agination of  the  credulous  and 
awed  multitude  with  superstitious 
wonder.  .  .  , 

The  Christians  fixed  their  eyes 
upon  the  cross,  which  glittered 
on  a  bosom  whose  beauty  scarcely 
seemed  of  mortal  mould,  and 
deemed  themselves  the  witnesses 
of  a  miracle  wrought  for  the  sal- 
vation of  a  persecuted  martyr, 
whose  innocence  was  asserted  by 
the  firmness  and  fortitude  with 
which  he  met  a  dreadful  death." 

Luxima  springs  upon  the  pyre  to 
die  with  the  missionary. 

At  the  sight  of  Luxima  the  peo- 
ple  rise   in   rebellion. 

"The  timid  spirits  of  the  Hindus 
rallied  to  an  event  which  touched 
their  hearts,  and  roused  them 
from  the  lethargy  of  despair — the 
sufferings,  the  oppression,  they 
had  so  long  endured,  seemed  now 
epitomized  before  their  eyes  in 
the  person  of  their  celebrated  and 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 


57 


"The    tyrants    send    their    armed 
slaves  to  quell 

Her     power;     they,     even    like    a 
thunder-gust 

Caught  by  some   forest,  bend  be- 
neath the  spell 

Of    that    young    maiden's    speech, 
and   to   their   chiefs    rebel." 
It  did  not  suit  Shelley's  purpose 

to    have     the    people    use     force 

against  the  tyrants,  so  he  makes 

Cythna   persuade   the   people 

" — though  unwilling  her  to   bind 
Near  me  among  the  snakes." 

A   priest   commands   the   multi- 
tude to  seize  Cythna, 
"Slaves  to  the  stake 
Bind    her,    and   on    my   head   the 

burden   lay 
Of  her   just   torments  .  .  . 
They  trembled,  but  replied  not  nor 

obeyed 
Pausing  in  breathless  silence. 

Laon  escaped  from  his  first 
prison  in  a  boat  which  belonged  to 
an  old  man  who  represents  Shel- 
ley's tutor  at  Eton,  Dr.  Lind. 


distinguished  prophetess  .  .  .  they 
fell  with  fury  on  the  Christians, 
they  rushed  upon  the  cowardly 
guards  of  the  Inquisition  who  let 
fall  their  arms  and  fled  in  dis- 
may." 


The  officers  of  the  Inquisition 
called  on  by  their  superiors  sprang 
forward  to  seize  the  missionary; 
"for  a  moment  the  timid  multi- 
tude were  still  as  the  pause  of 
a   brooding  storm." 


During  the  confusion  caused  by 
the  insurrection  the  missionary 
and  Luxima  escape  in  a  boat 
which  was  provided  by  his  old 
tutor,  the  Pundit. 


The  missionary  and  Luxima  reach  a  cavern  which  bears  a 
slight  resemblance  to  the  caverns  of  The  Revolt.  He  discovers 
that  the  priestess  is  dying  from  a  wound  received  during  the 
melee  at  Lahore.  ''Answering  the  eloquence  of  her  languid 
and  tender  looks,  he  exclaims,  'Yes,  dearest,  and  most  unfor- 
tunate our  destines  are  now  inseparably  united !  Together  we 
have  loved,  together  we  have  resisted,  together  we  have  erred, 
and  together  we  have  suffered ;  lost  alike  to  the  glory  and  the 
fame  which  our  virtues  and  the  conquest  of  our  passions 
obtained  for  us;  alike  condemned  by  our  religions  and  our 
countries,  there  now  remains  nothing  on  earth  for  us  but  each 
other.'  "  This  recalls  to  mind  the  dedication  of  The  Revolt  of 
Islam — 

There  is  no  danger  to  a  man  that  knows 
What  life  and  death  is;  there's  not  any  law 
Exceeds  his  knowledge:  neither  is  it  lawful 
That  he  should  stoop  to  any  other  law. 

As  the  end  of  Luxima  approaches  she  bids  her  beloved  live 
and  preach  peace  and  mercy,  and  love  to  Brahmin  and  Chris- 


58  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

tian.  "But  should  thy  eloquence  and  thy  example  fail,  tell 
them  my  story!  tell  them  how  I  have  suffered,  and  how  even 
thou  has  failed — thou,  for  whom  I  forfeited  my  caste,  my 
country  and  my  life;  for  'tis  too  true,  that  still  more  loving 
than  enlightened,  my  ancient  habits  of  belief  clung  to  my 
mind,  thou  to  my  heart;  still  I  lived  thy  seeming  proselyte, 
that  I  might  still  live  thine ;  and  now  I  die  as  Brahmin  women 
die;  a  Hindoo  in  my  feelings  and  my  faith — dying  for  him  I 
loved  and  believing  as  my  fathers  believed."^^ 

This  bears  some  resemblance  to  that  part  of  Cythna's 
speech  in  the  cavern.  Canto  IX,  where  she  glories  in  the 
triumph  of  their  love  over  the  opposition  of  the  world. 

I  fear  nor  prize 
Aught  that  can  now  betide  unshared  by  thee. 

Cythna  thinks  that  she  will  soon  die  and  believes  like 
Luxima  that  the  story  of  their  love  will  be  a  source  of  in- 
spiration to  mankind 

Our  many  thoughts  and  deeds,  our  life  and  love, 
Our  happiness,  and  all  that  we  have  been 
Immortally  must  live  and  burn  and  move 
When  we  shall  be  no  more. 

There  are,  of  course,  some  differences  between  the  two 
stories,  especially  in  the  conclusions  (Cythna  and  Laon  are 
burned,  while  Luxima  alone  dies  and  the  Missionary  is  never 
heard  of  again)  ;  but  many  of  the  incidents  of  both  are  so 
alike  as  to  justify  us  in  believing  that  those  in  The  Revolt  were 
derived  from  The  Missionary.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  fact 
that  Shelley  makes  more  attacks  in  this  poem  on  priests  and 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  than  in  any  other.  In  the  preface 
to  the  poem,  Shelley  says  that  '^although  the  mere  composition 
occupied  no  more  than  six  months,  the  thoughts  thus  arranged 
were  slowly  gathered  in  as  many  years."  It  is  suggestive  that 
the  idea  of  composing  the  poem  came  to  him  in  1811,  the  year 
in  which  he  first  read  the  Missionary.  In  this  same  year  he 
wrote  a  little  poem  entitled  an  Essay  on  Love,  no  copy  of  which 
is  now  extant.''^    Should  one  ever  come  to  light,  it  may  show 

"P.  273. 

"Cf.  Letter  to  Godwin,  Jan.  16,  1812. 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  59 

remarkable  similarity  to  the  love  poem  The  Revolt  of  Islam, 
where  *'love  is  celebrated  everywhere  as  the  sole  law  which 
should  govern  the  moral  world. '"'° 

It  has  been  said  that  Shelley  was  a  libertine,  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  proof  for  this  assertion.  Hogg,  who  was  his 
most  intimate  friend  at  Oxford,  says  the  purity  and  sanctity  of 
Shelley's  life  were  most  conspicuous.  ''He  was  offended,  and 
indeed  more  indignant  than  would  appear  to  be  consistent 
with  the  singular  mildness  of  his  nature  at  a  coarse  and 
awkward  jest,  especially  if  it  were  immodest  and  uncleanly; 
in  the  latter  case  his  anger  was  unbounded,  and  his  uneasiness 
preeminent."  With  the  exception  of  his  elopement  with  Mary 
Godwin  there  is  nothing  in  his  life  to  indicate  that  he  was 
licentious.  "Die  ruhe,  klarheit,  sicherheit  und  stiirke  seines 
geschlechtlichen  empfundens,  das  frei  ist  von  aller  liisternheit 
Oder  unnatiirlichkeit  ist  bei  seiner  feinfiihligen,  nervosen 
korperanlage  besonders  bemerkenswert."*'^ 

True,  Shelley  loved  many  women,  but  this  does  not  prove 
that  he  was  immoral.  His  love  is  platonic  and  not  sensual, 
riatonic  love  is  described  by  Howell  as  ''a  love  abstracted 
from  all  corporeal  gross  impressions  and  sensual  appetites, 
but  consists  in  contemplations  and  ideas  of  the  mind.'"'-  It 
is  a  passion  having  its  source  in  the  enjoyment  of  beauty  and 
goodness. 

"What  is  love  or  friendship?''  Shelley  asks.  "Is  it  capable 
of  no  extension,  no  communication?"  Lord  Kaimes  defines 
love  to  be  a  particularization  of  the  general  passion,  but  this 
is  the  love  of  sensation,  of  sentiment — the  absurdest  of  absurd 
vanities;  it  is  the  love  of  pleasure,  not  the  love  of  happiness. 
The  one  is  a  love  which  is  self-centered,  self-devoted,  self- 
interested  .  .  .  selfishness,  monopoly  in  its  veiy  soul ;  but 
love,  the  love  which  we  worship — virtue,  heaven,  disinterest- 
edness— in  a  word.'"'^  Love  seeks  the  good  of  all,  not  because 
its  object  is  a  minister  to  its  pleasures,  but  because  it  is  really 
worthy. 


•"Preface  to  The  Revolt  of  Islam. 
"Maurer:    Shelley  und  die  frauen,  p.  74. 
"Howell's  Letters,  Book  I,  sect.  6,  let.  XV. 
"To  E.  Kitchener,  Nov.  12,  1811. 


GO  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

Platonism,  laying  emphasis  upon  the  function  of  the  soul 
as  opposed  to  the  senses,  treats  ''love  as  a  purely  spiritual 
passion  devoid  of  all  sensuous  pleasure."*'*  Beauty  is  a 
spiritual  thing,  tlie  splendor  of  (Jod's  light  shining  in  all 
things.  It  is  that  quality  of  an  object  which  draws  us  to  it 
and  make  us  love  it.  Man  should  love  everything  and  every- 
body because  they  are  all  beautiful.    Shelley  says: 

True  love  in  this  differs  from  gold  and  clay, 
That  to  divide  is  not  to  take  away 
Love  is  like  understanding,  that  grows  bright 
Gazing  on  many  truths  f^ 

In  another  place  he  says  "the  meanest  of  our  fellow  beings 
contains  qualities,  which,  developed,  we  must  admire  and 
adore."  Beauty  is  something  more  than  outward  appearance. 
The  source  of  its  power  lies  in  the  soul.  "The  platonic  theory 
of  Tjeauty  teaches  that  the  beauty  of  the  body  is  a  result  of 
the  formative  energy  of  the  soul."  According  to  the  Platonist 
Ficino  the  soul  has  descended  from  heaven  and  has  framed  a 
body  in  which  to  dwell.  True  lovers  are  those  whose  souls 
have  departed  from  heaven  under  the  same  astral  influencss 
and  who,  accordingly,  are  informed  with  the  same  idea  in 
imitation  of  which  they  frame  their  earthly  bodies."^*'  "We  are 
born,"  writes  Shelley,  "into  the  world,  and  there  is  something 
within  us  which,  from  the  instant  that  we  live,  more  and 
more  thirsts  after  its  likeness  .  .  .  The  discovery  of 
its  antitype;  the  meeting  with  an  understanding  capable  of 
clearly  estimating  our  own  .  .  .  with  a  frame  whose 
nerves  like  the  chords  of  two  exquisite  lyres,  strung  to  the 
accompaniment  of  one  delightful  voice,  vibrate  with  the  vibra- 
tions of  our  own;  .  .  .  this  is  the  invisible  and  unattain- 
able point  to  which  love  tends.""  According  to  Plato  wisdom 
is  the  most  lovely  of  all  ideas  and  the  human  being  who  has 
the  greatest  amount  of  wisdom  is  the  most  lovable.  Platonic 
love  then  concerns  only  the  soul,  and  the  union  of  lover  and 
beloved  is  simply  a  union  of  their  souls.  "I  am  led  to  love 
a  being,"  Shelley  says,  "not  because  it  stands  in  the  physical 


"J.  S.  Harrison,  Platonism  in  English  Poetry  of  the  Sixteenth  and 
Seventeenth  Centuries,  p.  104. 
^Epipsychidion.  Dowden,  p.  408. 
**Platonism  in  Ejigliah  Poetry,  p.  115. 
"Essay  on  Love. 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  Gl 

relation  of  blood  to  me  but  because  I  discern  an  intellectual 
relationship.""^  Whenever  Shelley  sees  one  possessing  beauty 
and  virtue  he  cannot  help  loving  that  person. 

I  never  was  attached  to  that  great  sect 
Whose  doctrine  is  that  each  one  should  select 
Out  of  the  crowd  a  mistress  or  a  friend 
And  all  the  rest  though  fair  and  wise  commend 
To  cold  oblivion;''^ 

Again 

Narrow 

The  heart  that  loves,  the  brain  that  contemplates 
The  life  that  wears,  the  spirit  that  creates 
One  object,  and  one  form,  and  builds  thereby 
A  sepulchre  for  its  eternity. 

This  is  the  doctrine  of  Diotima  in  Plato's  Symposium, 
which  Shelley  has  translated  as  follows:  "He  who  aspires 
to  love  rightly,  ought  from  his  earliest  youth  to  seek  an 
intercourse  with  beautiful  forms.  .  .  .  He  ought  then  to 
consider  that  beauty  in  whatever  form  it  resides  is  the  brother 
of  that  beauty  which  subsists  in  another  form;  and  if  he 
ought  to  pursue  that  which  is  beautiful  in  form  it  would  be 
absurd  to  imagine  that  beauty  is  not  one  and  the  same  thing 
in  all  forms,  and  would  therefore  remit  much  of  his  ardent 
preferences  towards  one,  through  his  perception  of  the  multi- 
tude of  claims  upon  his  love." 

In  the  preface  to  Alastor  Shelley  says  that  the  poem  repre- 
sents a  youth  (himself)  of  uncorrupted  feelings  led  forth  to 
the  contemplation  of  the  universe.  ''But  the  period  arrives 
when  these  objects  cease  to  suffice.  His  mind  is  at  length 
awakened,  and  thirsts  for  intercourse  with  an  intelligence 
similar  to  himself.  He  images  to  himself  the  Being  whom 
he  loves."  This  image  unites  all  of  v/onderful  or  wise  or 
beautiful  which  the  poet  could  depict.  Shelley  sought  this 
ideal  all  through  life,  and  when  he  tliought  he  found  it  went 
into  raptures.  Disillusionment,  however,  soon  followed,  and 
Alastor  is  the  expression  of  his  despair  at  not  finding  an  em- 
bodiment of  his  ideal. 


"'Letter  to  Miss  Kitchener. 
"Epipsychidion. 


62  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

If  we  keep  iu  mind  that  Shelley  was  a  platonist,  we  shall 
be  able  to  form  a  more  intelligent  estimate  of  his  love  Ij^rics 
and  his  relations  with  women.  In  his  first  wife,  Harriet,  he 
saw  courage,  a  desire  for  freedom,  and  a  willingness  to  learn 
his  doctrines. 

Thou  art  sincere  and  good,  of  resolute  mind 
Free  from  heart-withering  customs'  cold  control, 
Of  passion  lofty,  pure  and  subdued. 

As  soon  as  she  ceased  to  take  interest  in  his  studies,  his 
love  for  her  began  to  wane.  ''Every  one  must  kuow,"  he  tells 
Peacock,  '"that  the  partner  of  my  life  should  be  one  who  can 
feel  poetry  and  understand  philosophy."  A  month  or  two 
after  his  first  marriage  he  tells  Elizabeth  Hitchener  that  he 
loves  her.  Seeing  that  she  possessed  high  intelligence,  great 
love  of  mankind,  and  a  tendency  to  oppose  existing  institu- 
tions, he  straightway  calls  her  the  "sister  of  his  soul." 

Later  on  he  meets  a  beautiful,  sentimental  Italian  girl, 
Emilia  Viviani,  imagines  she  is  the  perfect  ideal  which  he 
had  formed  in  his  youth,  and  writes  the  Epipsycliidion. 
''Emilia,"  says  Professor  Dowdeu,  ''beautiful,  spiritual,  sor- 
rowing, became  for  him  a  type  and  symbol  of  all  that  is  most 
radiant  and  divine  in  nature,  all  that  is  most  remote  and 
unattainable,  yet  ever  to  be  pursued — the  ideal  of  beauty, 
truth,  and  love."'°  EpipsychicUon  is  the  poetic  embodiment 
of  the  feelings  awakened  in  Shelley  by  this  supposed  discovery 
of  the  incarnation  of  the  ideal.  Emilia  turned  out  to  be  an 
ordinary  human  creature,  and  then  Shellej^  wished  to  blot 
out  the  memory  of  her  entirely.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gisborne, 
June,  1822,  Shellej^  says :  "I  think  one  is  always  in  love  with 
something  or  other;  the  error — and  I  confess  it  is  not  easy 
for  spirits  cased  in  flesh  and  blood  to  avoid  it — consists  in 
seeking  in  a  mortal  image  the  likeness  of  what  is,  perhaps 
eternal."  ''Such  illusions,"  says  Dowden,  "may  be  of  service 
iu  keeping  alive  within  us  the  aspiration  for  the  highest 
things,  but  assuredly  thej-  have  a  tendency  to  draw  away 
from  real  persons  some  of  those  founts  of  feeling  which  are 
needed  to  keep  fresh  and  bright  the  common  ways  and  days 
of  our  life."'^ 


'"Dowden's  Life,  Vol.  II,  p.  373. 
''Life  of  Shelley,  Vol.  II,  p.  378. 


VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  03 

Some  of  Shelley's  views  on  women  and  the  family  were 
derived  from  Mary  Wollstonecraft's  Vindication  of  the  Rights 
of  Women.  "According  to  the  prevailing  opinion,"  says  Mrs. 
Wollstonecraft,  "women  were  made  for  men,"  All  their  cares 
and  anxieties  are  directed  towards  getting  husbands.  They  deck 
themselves  out  with  artificial  graces  that  enable  them  to  exer- 
cise a  short  lived  tyrann3^  "Love  in  their  bosoms,  taking 
place  of  every  nobler  passion,  their  sole  ambition  is  to  look 
fair,  to  raise  emotion  instead  of  inspiring  respect;  and  this 
ignoble  desire,  like  the  servility  in  absolute  monarchies,  de- 
stroys all  strength  of  character.""-  Women  then  should  not 
depend  on  their  charms  alone,  because  these  have  little  effect 
on  their  husband's  heart  "when  they  are  seen  every  day  when 
the  summer  is  past  and  gone."  Her  first  care  should  be  to 
improve  her  mind,  to  exercise  her  God-given  faculties,  assert 
her  individuality.  This  can  never  be,  though,  as  long  as 
she  is  the  plaything  of  man.  If  one  may  contest  the  divine 
right  of  kings  one  may  also  contest  the  divine  right  of  hus- 
bands. Women  should  bow  only  to  reason  and  cease  being 
the  modest  slaves  of  opinion.  It  is  a  violation  of  the  sacred 
rights  of  humanity  to  exact  blind  obedience  and  meek  sub- 
mission of  women.  "The  being  who  patiently  endures  in- 
justice will  soon  become  unjust." 

In  The  Revolt  of  Islam,  Cythna  says : 

Can  man  be  free  if  woman  be  a  slave? 

Chain  one  who  lives  and  breathes  this  boundless  air, 

To  the  corruption  of  a  closed  grave! 

Can  they  whose  mates  are  beasts  condemned  to  bear 

Scorn,  heavier  far  than  toil  or  anguish,  dare 

To  trample  their  oppressors? 

According  to  Pope  "every  woman  is  at  heart  a  rake."  "Ren- 
dered gay  and  giddy  by  the  whole  tenor  of  their  lives,  the 
very  aspect  of  wisdom  or  the  severe  graces  of  virtue  must 
have  a  lugubrious  appearance  to  them."  "Till  women  are  led 
to  exercise  their  understandings  they  should  not  be  satirized 
for  their  attachment  to  rakes.""-^ 

Shelley's  opinion  of  women  is  even  less  complimentary: 


'"'Vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Wome^i,  ch.  II,  p.  38. 
"P.  128. 


64  VIEWS  ON   MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE 

Woman !  she  is  his  slave,  she  has  become 

A  thing  I  weep  to  speak — the  child  of  scorn, 

The  outcast  of  a  desolated  home. 

Falsehood,  and  fear,  and  toil,  like  waves  have  worn 

Channels  upon  her  cheek,  which  smiles  adorn, 

As  calm  decks  the  false  ocean.     .     .     J* 

*'The  parent,"  Mrs.  Wollstonecraft  writes,  ''who  pays  proper 
attention  to  helpless  infancy  has  a  right  to  require  the  same 
attention  when  the  feebleness  of  age  comes  upon  him.  But  to 
subjugate  a  rational  being  to  the  mere  will  of  another,  after 
he  is  of  age  to  answer  to  society  for  his  own  conduct,  is  a 
most  cruel  and  undue  stretch  of  power,  and  perhaps  as  in- 
jurious to  morality  as  those  religious  systems  which  do  not 
allow  right  and  wrong  to  have  any  existence,  but  in  the  Divine 
will."  Children  should  be  taught  early  to  submit  to  reason, 
''for  to  submit  to  reason,  is  to  submit  to  the  nature  of  things, 
and  to  that  God  who  formed  them  so,  to  promote  our  real 
interest."" 

But  children  near  their  parents  tremble  now 

Because  they  must  obey     ,     .     . 

.     ,     .     and  life  is  poisoned  in  its  wells.^^ 

"Obedience  (were  society  as  I  could  wish  it)  is  a  word 
which  ought  to  be  without  meaning."^^ 

Another  book  that  interested  Shelley  very  much  was  the 
''Memoires  relatives  a  la  Revolution  Francaise"  of  Louvet. 
Louvet  was  a  licentious  novelist  and  ardent  Kepublican.  He 
strongly  opposed  the  tyranny  of  Marat  and  of  Eobespierre  and 
the  work  of  the  commune  of  Paris.  He  was  very  courageous 
and  often  endangered  his  life  by  his  opposition  to  the  arbi- 
trary measures  of  the  Council.  In  1793  he  was  obliged  to 
flee  for  his  life  and  the  Memoirs  contains  interesting  details 
of  this  flight.  He  and  his  wife  were  very  devoted  to  each 
other,  and  this  together  with  the  man's  courage  made  a  strong 
impression  on  Shelley.  "Je  te  laissai,  mon  cher  Barbaroux; 
maix  tu  me  le  pardonnes;  tu  sais  quelle  passion  j'avais  pour 
elle,  et  comme  elle  en  6tait  digne !"    He  goes  to  Paris  in  spite 

"The  Revolt  o1  Islam,  Canto  II,  st.  36. 
'"'Y indication  of  the  Riqhts  of  Women,  ch.  XI. 
"•"The  Revolt  of  Islam,  Canto  VIII,  st.  13. 
"Miss  Kitchener,  Dec.  11,  1811. 


VIEWS  ON    MARRIAGE  AND  LOVE  65 

of  the  fact  that  he  runs  the  risk  of  being  seized  and  guillotined. 
"Quiconque  n'epouvva  point  un  pariel  supplice  ne  saurait  en 
avoir  une  juste  idee.  ()  Ladoiska !  sans  le  souvenir  de  ton 
amour,  qui  done  aurait  pu  m'  enipecher  de  terminer  mes 
peines?"^* 

Louvet  and  Ladoiska  are  reunited  again,  but  only  to  be 
arrested  soon  afterwards.  This  causes  her  to  exclaim,  "Non, 
je  jure  que  sans  toi,  la  vie  m'est  tournient,  un  insupportable 
tourment,  seule,  je  perirais  bientot,  je  perirais  desesperee.  Ah ! 
permets,  permets  que  nous  mourions  ensemble."^*' 

This  work  may  have  suggested  to  Shelley  the  idea  of  making 
Laon  and  Cythna  die  together.    Cythna  tells  Laou 

Darkness  and  death,  if  death  be  true,  must  be 
Dearer  than  life  and  hope  if  unenjoyed  with  thee,^" 


"P.  200,  Memoirs. 

"P.  281. 

•"Canto  IX.  St.  34. 


CHAPTER  111 

POLITICS 

.  Someone  has  said  that  if  Shelley  had  not  been  a  poet  he 
would  have  been  a  politician.  Certain  it  is  that  he  gave  to 
politics  a  great  deal  of  thought  and  study.  On  January  26, 
1819,  Shelley  wrote  to  Peacock:  "I  consider  poetry  very  sub- 
ordinate to  political  science,  and,  if  I  were  well,  certainly  I 
would  aspire  to  the  latter,  for  I  can  conceive  a  great  work 
embodying  the  discoveries  of  all  ages,  and  harmonizing  the 
contending  creeds  by  which  mankind  have  been  ruled."®^  Shel- 
ley was  not  one  who 

beheld  the  woe 
In  which  mankind  was  bound,  and  deem'd  that  fate 
Which  made  them  abject,  would  preserve  them  so. 

On  the  contrary,  he  firmly  believed  in  man's  capacity  to  work 
out  his  own  regeneration.  His  tuneful  lyre  was  ever  at  the 
service  of  the  Goddess  of  Freedom ;  and  he  took  occasion  often 
to  pour  forth  music  calculated  to  rouse  the  nations  from  their 
apathy. 

Very  many  of  Shelley's  views  on  political  and  social  ques- 
tions can  be  traced  to  Godwin's  Political  Justice.  Godwin 
doubts  that  one  can  be  said  to  have  a  mind.  It  may  still  be 
convenient  to  use  the  word  ''mind,"  but  in  fact  what  we  know 
by  that  name  is  merely  a  chain  of  ''ideas."  Since  man's  mind 
is  but  an  aggregate  of  ideas,  man  himself  is  capable  of  in- 
definite modification.  Differences  in  men  result  wholly  from 
differences  of  education.  Feed  a  sinner  on  syllogisms  and 
you  can  trausform  hira  into  a  saint.  It  is  impossible  for  one 
to  resist  a  clear  exposition  of  the  advantages  of  virtue.  It 
follows,  too,  that  we  can  easily  abolish  existing  institutions 
and  rearrange  the  whole  structure  of  society  on  new  prin- 
ciples infallibly  correct.  The  force  which  is  to  spur  us  on  to 
do  this  is  reason.    It  is  "omnipotent." 

Volney,  Rousseau,  Holbach,  and  the  rest  of  this  stamp, 
although  condemning  past  systems  of  government,  admitted 
that  some  form  of  government  was  necessary  for  the  well- 


'^Ingpen,  p.  659. 
GC 


POLITICS  67 

being  of  maukiud.  Godwin,  on  the  otlier  liaud,  denounced^ 
all  government  as  "an  institution  of  the  most  pernicious  ten- 
dency." There  is  only  one  power  to  which  man  should  yield 
obedience  and  that  is  the  decision  of  his  own  understanding. 
Conditions  being  such  as  they  are,  government  may  be  required 
for  a  while  to  restrain  and  direct  men,  but  as  soon  as  men 
will  learn  to  follow  reason,  government  will  disappear  alto- 
gether. 

Godwin  taught  that  every  voluntary  action  flows  solely 
from  the  decision  of  one's  judgment.  "Voluntary  actions  of 
men  originate  in  all  cases  in  their  opinions,"  i.  c,  in  the  state 
of  their  minds  immediately  previous  to  those  actions.  The 
nature  of  a  man's  actions,  therefore,  depends  on  the  nature 
of  his  opinions.  If  he  has  just  and  true  opinions  his  actions 
will  be  good;  if  erroneous  ones,  his  actions  will  be  bad.  But 
"sound  reasoning  and  truth  adequately  communicated  must 
be  victorious  over  error."®^  Man  will  always  accept  the  truth 
if  presented  to  him  properly.  It  follows,  then,  that  "reason 
and  conviction  appear  to  be  the  proper  instruments  for  regu 
lating  the  actions  of  mankind."  Man's  conduct  should  not 
conform  to  any  other  standard  but  reason.  Obedience  to  law 
then  is  immoral,  unless  of  course  its  mandates  correspond  to 
the  decision  of  our  own  judgments.    Shelley  has  the  same  idea 

The  man 
Of  virtuous  soul  commands  not,  nor  obeys. 
Power,  like  a  devastating  pestilence 
Pollutes  whate'er  it  touches;  and  obedience 
Bane  of  all  genius,  virtue,  freedom,  truth. 
Make  slaves  of  men,  and  of  the  human  frame 
A  mechanized  automaton.^^ 

Again  and  again  he  exclaims  against  kings  and  autocracy. 
His  sonnet,  "England  in  1819,"  is  a  terrible  castigation  of  the 
Hanoverian  Kings : 

An  old,  mad,  blind,  despised  and  dying  king ; 
Princes  the  dregs  of  their  dull  race,  who  flow 
Through  public  scorn — mud  from  a  muddy  spring, 
Rulers  who  neither  see,  nor  feel,  nor  know. 
But  leech-like  to  their  fainting  country  cling, 
Till  they  drop  blind  in  blood  without  a  blow,  etc.,  etc. 


»=Book  I.  Ch.  V,  p.  87. 
^^Queen  Mab,  Canto  III. 


68  POLITICS 

To  aid  republicanism  lie  espoused  the  cause  of  the  unhappy 
Caroline  of  Brunswick  and  on  her  account  wrote  "A  New 
National  Anthem,"  and  the  satirical  piece,  "Swellfoot  the 
Tyrant."  In  "Hellas"  we  find  him  advocating  the  cause  of 
Greece,  and  it  is  believed  that  this  poem  moved  his  friend 
Byron  to  take  up  arms  in  defense  of  that  country. 

'*A  king,"  writes  Godwin,  ''is  necessarily  and  unavoidably 
a  despot  in  his  heart."  With  him  the  words  ''ruler"  and 
"tyrant"  are  synonymous.  A  king  from  the  very  nature  of 
his  office  cannot  be  anything  but  vicious.  Shelley  expresses 
his  opinion  of  kings  as  follows : 

The  king,  the  wearer  of  a  gilded  chain 
That  binds  his  soul  to  abjectness,  the  fool 
Whom  courtiers  nickname  monarcli,  whilst  a  slave 
Even  to  the  basest  appetites.^* 
One  wonders  at  first  why  Shelley  should  have  represented 
evil  as  an  eagle  in  The  Revolt  of  Islam.    The  reason  for  this 
becomes  clear  when  one  considers  that  the  eagle  is  often  called 
a  king  among  birds  and  is  used  as  a  symbol  for  authority. 

Shelley,  however,  did  not  believe  in  violent  revolutions.  In 
The  Revolt  of  Islam,  Irish  pamphlets,  &c.,  he  advocates  refor- 
mation without  recourse  to  force.  A  change  must  take  place ; 
kings  must  be  done  away  with,  but  not  until  the  people  are 
prepared  for  the  change.  "A  pure  republic,"  he  writes,  "may 
be  shown,  by  inferences  the  most  obvious  and  irresistible,  to 
be  that  system  of  social  order  the  fittest  to  produce  the  happi- 
ness and  promote  the  genuine  eminence  of  man.  Yet  nothing 
can  less  consist  with  reason  or  afford  smaller  hopes  of  any 
beneficial  issue  than  the  plan  which  should  abolish  the  regal 
and  the  aristocratical  branches  of  our  constitution,  before  the 
public  mind,  through  many  gradations  of  improvement,  shall 
have  arrived  at  the  maturity  which  shall  disregard  these  sym- 
bols of  its  childhood." 

Godwin  and  Shelley  maintain  that  the  state  should  make 
as  little  use  as  possible  of  coercion  and  violence.  "Criminals 
should  be  pitied  and  reformed,  not  detested  and  punished." 
The  punishment  of  death  is  particularly  obnoxious  to  them. 
Shelley  argues  against  it  in  his  essay  on  The  Punishment  of 

**Queen  Mab,  III,  p.  9. 


POLITICS  69 

Death.  He  claims  that  the  punishment  of  death  defeats  its 
own  end.  It  is  a  triumphant  exhibition  of  suffering  virtue, 
which  may  inspire  some  with  pity,  admiration  and  sympathy. 
As  a  consequence  it  may  incite  them  to  emulate  their  works, 
especially  the  works  of  political  agitators.  Punishment  of 
death,  again,  excites  those  emotions  which  are  inimical  to 
social  order.  It  strengthens  all  the  inhuman  and  unsocial  im- 
pulses of  man.  The  contempt  of  human  life  breeds  ferocity 
of  manners  and  contempt  of  social  ties.  Hence  it  is,  Shelley 
believes,  that  those  nations  in  which  the  penal  code  has  been 
particularly  mild  have  been  distinguished  from  all  others  by 
the  rarity  of  crime. 

Neither  should  the  citizens  of  a  state  use  violence  in  putting 
down  oppression.  In  his  address  to  the  Irish  he  tells  them 
that  violence  and  folly  will  serve  only  to  delay  emancipation. 
"Mildness,  sobriety,  and  reason  are  the  effectual  methods  of 
forwarding  the  ends  of  liberty  and  happiness."  Violence  and 
falsehood  will  produce  nothing  but  wretchedness  and  slavery 
and  will  make  those  who  use  them  incapable  of  further  exer- 
tion. Violence  will  immediately  render  their  cause  a  bad  one. 
Oodwin  likewise  maintains  that  "force  is  an  expedient  the 
use  of  which  is  much  to  be  deplored.  It  is  contrarj^  to  the 
nature  of  intellect  which  cannot  be  improved  but  by  conviction 
and  persuasion.  It  corrupts  the  man  that  employs  it  and  the 
man  upon  whom  it  is  employed."^^  In  The  Revolt  of  Islam 
Shelley  says: 

Oh  wherefore  should  ill  ever  flow  from  ill, 
And  pain  still  keener  pain  forever  breed? 
We  are  all  brethren — even  the  slaves  who  kill 
For  hire  are  men ;  and  to  avenge  misdeed 
On  the  misdoer  doth  but  misery  feed 
With  her  own  broken  heart  I^*^ 

Godwin  would  reform  society  by  means  of  education,  so 
also  would  Shelley.  They  seem  to  differ  though  in  their  views 
with  regard  to  the  relations  that  exist  between  institutions 
and  individuals.  Godwin  holds  that  tyrranical  institutions 
must  be  abolished  before  men  can  become  free.    ShelleA%  on  the 


"Political  Justice.  IV,  1. 
"Canto  V. 


70  POLITICS 

contrary,  says  that  the  freedom  and  enlightenment  of  indivi- 
duals should  come  first,  and  it  is  only  when  that  is  accom- 
plished that  tyrannical  institutions  will  disappear.  Godwin 
writes:  "The  only  method  according  to  which  social  improve- 
ments can  be  carried  on  is  when  the  improvement  of  our 
institutions  advances  in  a  just  proportion  to  the  illumination 
of  the  public  understanding.^^  While  Shelley  writes  in  his 
address  to  the  Irish  people  that  reform  "is  founded  on  the 
reform  of  private  men  and  without  individual  amendment 
it  is  vain  and  foolish  to  expect  the  amendment  of  a  state  or 
government."  Although  Godwin  says  in  the  first  book  of 
Political  Justice  that  it  is  futile  to  attempt  to  change  morals 
without  first  changing  our  institutions,  still,  later  on,  he  seems 
to  forget  this  and  to  advocate  the  reform  of  individuals. 
"Make  men  wise,"  he  writes,  "and  by  that  very  operation  you 
make  them  free.  Civil  liberty  follows  as  a  consequence 
of  this."^^  Shelley,  unlike  Plato,  would  give  to  poets 
the  first  place  in  his  plan  for  the  reform  of  society. 
He  calls  them  "the  acknowledged  legislators  of  the  world."*^ 
Godwin's  principle  of  justice  is  that  each  should  do  to  others 
all  the  good  that  is  in  his  power.  It  is  an  impartial  treatment 
of  every  man  in  matters  that  relate  to  his  happiness — a  treat- 
ment which  is  to  be  measured  solely  by  a  consideration  of  the 
properties  of  the  receiver  and  the  capacity  of  him  who  bestows. 
Everything  should  be  so  disposed — material  comforts  so  dis- 
tributed as  to  give  the  same  amount  of  pleasure  to  all.  Per- 
sonal and  private  feelings  such  as  gratitude  and  parental 
afifection  should  be  destroyed.  A  just  man  will  consider  the 
general  good  only.  Hence  if  my  father  and  a  stranger  who  is 
of  more  benefit  to  societj^  than  my  father  are  both  in  danger 
of  death,  I  am  bound  to  try  to  save  the  stranger  first.^°  Shelley 
has  something  similar  to  this  in  his  Essay  on  Christianity:  "I 
love  my  country,  I  love  the  city  in  which  I  was  born,  my 
parents,  my  wife  and  the  children  of  my  care,  and  to  these 
children,  this  woman,  this  nation,  it  is  incumbent  on  rae  to  do 


''Political  Justice,  I,  273. 
"Ibid.,  p.  259. 
"Defense  of  Poetry. 
•°Ibld. 


POLITICS  71 

all  the  benefits  in  my  power.  .  .  .  You  ought  to  love  all  man- 
kind, nay  every  individual  of  mankind.  You  ought  not  to  love 
the  individuals  of  your  domestic  circle  less,  but  to  love  those 
who  exist  beyond  it  more."'  Godwin  says  that  one  principle 
of  justice  is  "to  be  no  respecter  of  persons."^^  In  a  letter  to 
Miss  Hitchener,  October,  1811,  Shelley  writes:  "I  .  .  .  set  my- 
self up  as  no  respecter  of  persons."  "The  end  of  virtue,"  sayc 
Godwin,  "is  to  add  to  the  sum  of  pleasurable  sensation."  Ij. 
the  Essay  on  Christianity  Shelley  writes :  "This  and  no  other 
is  justice:  to  consider  under  all  circumstances  and  con- 
sequences of  a  particular  case  how  the  greatest  quantity  and 
purest  quality  of  happiness  will  ensue  from  any  action ;  this  is 
to  be  just;  and  there  is  no  other  justice,"  Godwin^^  attempts 
to  tell  how  we  can  find  out  whether  an  action  would  be  just 
or  not.  He  warns  us  against  measuring  the  morality  of  an 
action  according  to  existing  laws.  We  can  determine  its 
morality  only  by  trying  to  estimate  the  amount  of  happiness 
or  pain  it  will  cause  others.  "One  of  the  best  practical  rules 
of  morality,"  he  writes,  "is  that  of  putting  ourselves  in  the 
place  of  another.  ...  It  is  by  this  means  only  that  we  can 
form  an  adequate  idea  of  his  pleasures  and  pains."^^  Shelley 
expresses  the  same  thought  in  his  Defense  of  Poetry:  "A  man 
to  be  greatly  good  must  imagine  intensely  and  comprehen- 
sively; he  must  put  himself  in  the  place  of  another  and  many 
others ;  the  pains  and  pleasures  of  his  species  must  become  his 
own." 

For  Shelley  laws  are  "obscure  records  of  dark  and  barbarous 
echos,"  "tomes  of  reasoned  wrong  glozed  on  by  ignorance."''* 
Lawyers  are  those  who,  skilled  to  snare 

The  feet  of  justice  in  the  toils  of  law 
Stand,  ready  to  oppress  the  weaker  still. °^ 

"Government,"  he  says,  "cannot  make  a  law,  it  can  only  pro- 
nounce that  which  was  the  law  before  its  organization,  viz.: 
the  moral  result  of  the  imperishable  relations  of  things;"^' 


"Political  Justice,  Book  II,  Chap.  II,  p.  126. 

"Ibid.,  I,  p.  126. 

""Enquirer,  p.  298. 

"Prom.  Unbound,  III,  4,  167. 

"'Queen  Mob. 

"Decl,  of  Rights,  art.  15. 


72  POLITICS 

and  in  his  Address  to  the  Irish:  *'No  act  of  a  national  repre- 
sentation can  make  anj^tliing  wrong  which  was  not  wrong 
before :  it  cannot  change  virtue  and  truth."  All  this  is  merely 
a  repetition  of  Godwin's  principles.  '^Immutable  reason,"  he 
says,  "is  the  true  legislator,  and  her  decrees  it  behooves  us  to 
investigate.  The  functions  of  society  extend,  not  to  the  mak- 
ing, but  the  interpreting  of  law;  it  cannot  decree,  it  can  only 
declare  that  which  the  nature  of  things  has  already  decreed."'' 
\^\A  Godwin  was  a  communist  rather  than  a  socialist.  Every  kind 
S  of  cooperation  was  repugnant  to  him.  With  regard  to  the 
distribution  of  wealth  he  taught  that  any  given  article  belonged 
to  him  to  whom  it  will  give  the  greatest  sum  of  benefit  or 
pleasure.  A  loaf  of  bread,  v.  g.,  belongs  to  the  man  who  needs 
it  most.  Shelley  holds  that  if  the  properties  of  the  aristocrats 
were  resolved  into  their  original  stock,  and  if  each  earned  his 
own  living,  each  would  be  happy  and  contented,  and  crime  and 
the  temptation  to  crime  would  scarcely  exist.  "If  two 
children,"  he  writes,  "were  placed  together  in  a  desert  island 
and  they  found  some  scarce  fruit,  would  not  justice  dictate  an 
equal  division?  If  this  number  is  multiplied  to  any  extent  of 
which  number  is  capable,  if  these  children  are  men,  families — 
is  not  justice  capable  of  the  same  extension  and  multiplication? 
Is  it  not  the  same,  are  not  its  decrees  invariable ?"^^  Again  in 
his  Essay  on  Christianity:  "With  all  those  who  are  truly  wise, 
there  will  be  an  entire  community  not  only  of  thoughts  and 
feelings  but  also  of  external  possessions."  Both  Shelley  and 
Godwin  put  the  rent-roll  of  lands  in  the  same  class  as  the 
pension-list  which  is  supposed  to  be  employed  in  the  purchase 
of  ministerial  majorities. 

It  is  a  calculation  of  Godwin,  .says  Shelley,  "that  all  the 
conveniences  of  civilized  life  might  be  produced  if  society 
would  divide  the  labor  equally  among  its  members,  by  each 
individual  being  employed  in  labor  two  hours  during  the 
day."""  (Jodwin  says  that  the  means  of  subsistence  belong 
entirely  to  the  owner.  The  fruits  of  labor  belong  to  the  laborer, 
but  he  is  only  the  steward  of  them.    He  can  consume  onlv  what 


^'Political  Justice,  I,  p.  221. 

"Letter  to  Elizabeth  Kitchener,  July  26,  1811. 

"Notes  to  Quee7i  Mab. 


POLITICS  73 

he  needs,  and  must  preserve  and  dispense  the  rest  for  the  bene- 
fit of  others.  In  his  Essay  on  Christianity,  Shelley  writes 
''every  man  in  proportion  to  his  virtue  considers  himself,  with 
respect  to  the  great  community  of  mankind,  as  the  steward 
and  guardian  of  their  interests  in  the  property  which  he 
chances  to  possess."^''"  When  Shelley  proposed  to  share  his 
income  with  Elizabeth  Hitchener  he  said  that  he  was  not  do- 
ing an  act  of  generosity,  but  one  of  justice — "bare,  simple 
justice."  Godwin  says  that  new  inventions  and  the  refine- 
ments of  luxury  are  inimical  to  the  welfare  of  society.  These 
mean  more  work  for  the  poor  while  only  the  rich  are 
benefited."^  "The  poor,"  writes  Shelley,  "are  set  to  labor — 
for  what?  Not  the  food  for  which  they  famish;  not  the 
blankets  for  want  of  which  ...  no;  for  the  pride  of  power, 
for  the  miserable  isolation  of  pride,  for  the  false  pleasures  of 
the  hundredth  part  of  society."  Godwin  says  that  the  direct 
pleasure  which  luxuries  give  is  very  small.  They  are  prized 
because  of  the  love  of  distinction  which  is  characteristic  of 
every  human  mind.  Fine  bonnets  and  wealth  would  not  ho 
desired  by  a  family  living  on  a  desert  island.  Why  not  let  the 
acquisition  of  learning  and  the  practice  of  virtue  instea<l  of 
wealth  be  the  road  to  fame.    Shelley  writes — 

And  statesman  boasts 
Of  wealth.  .  .  .    How  vainly  seek 
The  selfish  for  that  happiness  denied 
To  aught  but  virtue.^'^- 

Again:  "the  man  who  has  fewest  bodily  wants  approachest 
nearest  to  the  Divine  Nature.  Satisfy  these  wants  at  the 
cheapest  rates  and  expend  the  remaining  energies  of  your 
nature  in  the  attainment  of  virtue  and  knowledge.  ...  Ye 
can  spend  no  labor  on  mechanism  consecrated  to  luxury  and 
pride."^°^  "There  is  no  wealth  in  the  world."  says  Godwin, 
"except  this,  the  labor  of  man."^°*  Every  new  luxury  is  a  new 
weight  thrown  on  the  shoulders  of  the  laborer,  for  which  they 


""Shelley  Memorials.  Essay  07i  Christia?iity,  p.  297. 
•"'Book  VIII,  ch.  2. 
""Queen  Mab,  V. 

"^Essay  on  Christianity,  p.  302. 

^^*The  Enquirer,  Part  II,  essay  2;   also  Politiml  Justice.  Book  VIII, 
ch.  2. 


74  POLITICS 

receive  no  benefit.  In  the  Notes  to  Queen  Mah,  Shelley  writes : 
"there  is  no  real  wealth  but  the  labor  of  man."  '*What  is 
misnamed  wealth/'  writes  Godwin,  "is  merely  a  power  vested 
in  certain  individuals  by  the  institutions  of  society  to  compel 
others  to  labor  for  their  benefit.^°^  "Wealth,"  says  Shelley,  "is 
a  power  usurped  by  the  few  to  comx)el  the  many  to  labor  for 
their  benefit." "« 

Shelley  during  his  sojurn  in  Ireland,  in  the  spring  of  1813, 
published  the  Declaration  of  Rights.  This  pamphlet  after- 
wards led  to  the  arrest  of  his  Irish  servant,  Daniel  Hill,  for 
distributing  the  same  without  authority.  Many  propositions 
of  the  Declaration  of  Rights  bear  considerable  resemblance  to 
some  of  the  proposals  of  the  Declaration  of  Rights  adopted  by 
the  Constitutional  Assembly  of  France  in  August,  1789. 

No.  3  of  Shelley's  Declaration  reads  as  follows:  "Govern- 
ment is  devised  for  the  security  of  rights.  The  rights  of  men 
are  liberty  and  an  equal  participation  in  the  commonage  of  na- 
ture." Proposition  No.  2  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  is: 
"The  object  of  every  political  association  is  the  conservation 
of  the  natural  and  imprescriptible  rights  of  man.  These  rights 
are  liberty,  security,  resistance  to  oppression." 

In  No.  4  Shelley  says:  "As  the  benefit  of  the  governed  is, 
ought  to  be,  the  origin  of  government,  no  man  can  have  any 
authority  that  does  not  expressly  emanate  from  their  will.  The 
corresponding  constituent  proposition  is:  "The  principle  of 
all  authority  resides  essentially  in  the  nation;  no  body,  no 
individual  can  exercise  any  authority  that  does  not  expressly 
emanate  from  it." 

Compare  Shelley's  No.  6  with  Nos.  1  and  17.  No.  6:  "All 
have  a  right  to  an  equal  share  in  the  benefits  and  burdens  of 
the  government.  Any  disabilities  for  opinions  imply,  by  their 
very  existence,  barefaced  tyranny  on  the  side  of  the  govern- 
ment, ignorant  slavishness  on  the  side  of  the  governed."  No. 
1  of  the  Assemhly :  "Men  are  born  and  remain  free  and  equal. 
Social  distinctions  can  only  be  founded  on  the  common  good." 
No.  17:  "Property  being  an  inviolable  and  sacred  right,  no 
one  can  be  deprived  of  it,  unless  public  necessity  evidently 


^"'Political  Enquirer,  p.  177. 
"•Notes  to  Queen  Mah. 


POLITICS  75 

demands  it,  and  then  only  on  condition  that  indemnity  be 
made." 

No.  7  of  the  Declaration  resembles  the  constituent  Nos.  8 
and  9.  Shelley  says:  ''The  rights  of  man  in  the  present  state 
of  society  are  only  to  be  secured  by  some  degree  of  coercion 
to  be  exercised  on  their  violator.  The  sufferer  has  a  right 
that  the  degree  of  coercion  employed  be  as  light  as  possible." 

No.  8:  "The  law  should  establish  only  those  punishments 
that  are  strictly  and  evidently  necessary,  &c." 

No.  9 :  ".  .  .  all  unnecessary  severity  should  be  repressed 
by  law," 

Shelley's  No.  9  and  the  constituent  No.  7  declare  that  no 
man  has  the  right  to  resist  the  law. 

No.  15  of  the  Dec1aratio7i  resembles  No.  5  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly.  No.  15:  "Law  cannot  make  what  is  in  its  nature 
virtuous  or  innocent  to  be  criminal,  any  more  than  it  can 
make  what  is  criminal  to  be  innocent.  Government  cannot 
make  a  law;  it  can  only  pronounce  that  which  was  the  law 
before  its  organization,  v/s".,  the  moral  result  of  the  imperish- 
able relation  of  things."  No.  5 :  "Law  has  only  the  right  to 
prohibit  those  actions  which  are  injurious  to  society.  Any- 
thing that  is  not  forbidden  by  the  law  cannot  be  prevented, 
and  no  one  can  be  constrained  to  do  that  which  is  not  or- 
dained by  law." 

Shelley's  No.  21  is :  "The  government  of  a  country  ought  to 
be  perfectly  indifferent  to  every  opinion.  Religious  differ- 
ences, the  bloodiest  and  most  rancorous  of  all,  spring  from 
partiality."  This  corresponds  to  constituent  No.  10:  "No  one 
should  be  disturbed  on  account  of  his  opinions,  even  religious 
ones,  provided  their  manifestation  does  not  endanger  the 
public  order  established  by  law." 

Finally  compare  Shelley's  No.  27  with  constituent  No.  6. 
No.  27:  "No  man  has  a  right  to  be  respected  for  any  other 
possessions  but  those  of  virtue  and  talents.  Titles  are  tinsel, 
power  a  corruptor,  glory  a  bubble,  and  excessive  wealth  a 
libel  on  its  possessor.  No.  6 :  "All  citizens,  being  equal  in  the 
eyes  of  the  law,  are  equally  admissable  to  every  dignity,  posi- 
tion, and  public  employment  according  to  their  capacity,  and 
without  anv  other  distinction  but  those  of  virtue  and  talents." 


76  POLITICS 

Shelley's  political  views  were  somewhat  modified  by  the 
influence  of  Leigh  Hunt.  The  two  friends  probably  met  for 
the  first  time  in  January,  1814.  Both  were  sensitive  and  of  a 
retiring  disposition,  dwelling  in  a  world  of  books  and  dreams. 
Hunt,  like  Shelley,  advocated  Catholic  emancipation,  freedom 
of  the  press,  and  reform  of  parliamentary  representation.  He 
differed  from  Shelley  in  this,  that  he  was  more  practical,  and 
had  more  faith  than  his  friend  in  the  advantages  of  such  par- 
tial reforms  as  the  abolition  of  child  labor  and  of  the  slave 
trade,  the  reduction  and  equalization  of  taxes,  and  the  educa- 
tion of  the  poor.  Hunt  advocated  the  reform  of  military  dis- 
cipline, while  Shelley  claimed  that  standing  armies  should  be 
abolished  altogether.  Hunt  carried  on  his  attacks  against 
the  evils  of  the  time  in  the  pages  of  The  Examiner,  which 
everybody  read  in  those  days.  In  1813  the  Hunt  brothers 
were  fined  and  imprisoned  for  an  offensive  article  on  the 
Prince  Kegent  which  appeared  in  their  paper.  Shelley  must 
have  offered  to  pay  this  fine,  as  Hunt  records  in  his  auto- 
biography that  Shelley  made  him  a  princely  offer.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1816,  the  Shelleys,  after  their  return  from  the  continent, 
were  the  guests  of  Hunt  at  Hampstead  and  received  his  sup- 
port and  sympathy  during  the  Chancery  suit.  Through  Hunt, 
Shelley  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Cockney  circle,  includ- 
ing Keats,  Hazlitt,  Keynolds,  Novello,  Brougham  and  Horace 
Smith.  In  return  for  all  this  Shelley  gave  freely  of  his  money 
to  Hunt. 

One  acquainted  with  the  Englishman'^  sense  of  honor  may 
wonder  at  the  unusual  way  Hunt  and  Godwin  accepted  money 
from  Shelley  and  others.  It  must  be  remembered  though 
that  these  men  believed  no  man  had  exclusive  ownership  in 
superfluous  wealth.  They  received  what  Shelley  could  spare 
as  if  they  were  taking  what  belonged  to  themselves. 

Early  in  1817  Shelley  wrote  .1  Proposal  for  Putting  Reform 
to  a  Vote,  a  pamphlet  which  today  in  England  would  be  con- 
sidered conservative.  It  suggested  tliat  a  meeting  be  lield  at 
tlie  Crown  and  Anchor  Tavern  "to  take  into  consideration  the 
most  effectual  measures  for  ascertaining  whether  or  no  a 
reform  in  Parliament  is  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  in- 
dividuals of  the  British  nation.     It  disclaimed  any  design  of 


POLITICS  77 

saiictioiiing  the  revolutionarj'  schemes  wliich  were  imputed  to 
the  friends  of  reform,  and  declares  that  its  object  is  purely 
constitutional.  The  paraplilet  advocates  annual  parliaments, 
but  not  universjil  suffrage.  In  it  Shelley  expresses  himself  in 
favor  of  retaining  the  regal  and  aristocratical  branches  of  our 
constitution  until  the  public  mind  ^'shall  have  arrived  at  the 
maturity  that  can  disregard  these  symbols  of  its  childhood." 
"Political  institutions,"  he  there  writes,  "are  undoubtedly 
susceptible  of  such  improvement  as  no  rational  person  can 
consider  possible  as  long  as  the  present  degraded  condition 
to  which  the  vital  imperfections  in  the  existing  system  of  gov- 
ernment has  reduced  the  vast  multitude  of  men  shall  subsist. 
The  securest  method  of  arriving  at  such  beneficial  innovations 
is  to  proceed  gradually  and  with  caution." 

In  February,  1817,  the  Shelleys  went  to  live  at  Marlow. 
There  was  much  suffering  among  the  lacemaliers  of  that  town 
and  Shelley  went  continually  among  the  unfortunate  popula- 
tion, relieving  the  most  pressing  cases  of  distress  to  the  best 
of  his  ability.  He  had  a  list  of  pensioners  to  whom  he  made 
a  weekly  allowance.  One  day  he  returned  home  without  shoes, 
having  given  them  away  to  a  poor  man. 

On  March  11,  1818,  Shelley,  accompanied  by  his  family, 
quitted  England,  never  again  to  return.  In  Italy,  as  in  Eng- 
land, he  continually  changed  his  place  of  abode.  During  the 
year  1818  he  wrote  Lines  Written  among  the  Euganean  Hills, 
Julian  and  Maddalo,  and  also  began  Prometheus  Unbound. 
This  last  work  was  completed  in  Rome  during  the  summer  and 
fall  of  1819.  "The  poem,"'  he  says  in  the  preface,  "was  chiefly 
written  upon  the  mountainous  ruins  of  the  baths  of  Cara- 
calla,  among  the  flowery  glades  and  thickets  of  odoriferous 
blossoming  trees  which  are  extended  in  everwinding  labyrinths 
upon  its  immense  platforms  and  dizzy  arches  suspended  in 
the  air."  Prometheus  U)ihound  is  considered  by  many  to  be 
Shelley's  most  important  work.  Mr.  J.  A.  Symonds  declares 
that  "a  genuine  liking  for  it  may  be  reckoned  the  touchstone 
of  a  man's  capacity  for  un<lerstanding  lyric  poetry."  Mr. 
Rossetti  waxes  eloquent  over  "The  immense  scale  and  bound- 
less scope  of  the  conception ;  the  marble  majesty  and  extra- 
mundane  passions  of  the  personages;  the  sublimity  of  ethical 


78  POLITICS 

aspiration;  the  radiance  of  ideal  and  poetic  beauty  which 
saturates  every  phase  of  the  subject." 

Prometheus,  according  to  W.  Rossetti,  is  the  mind  of  man. 
In  his  preface  to  the  poem  Shelley  writes :  "But  Prometheus 
is,  as  it  were,  the  type  of  the  highest  perfection  of  moral  and 
intellectual  nature  impelled  by  the  purest  and  truest  motives 
to  the  best  and  noblest  ends."  At  the  opening  of  the  drama 
Prometheus  is  discovered  bound  to  an  icy  precipice  in  the 
Indian  Caucasus.  He  is  kept  there  by  the  tyrant  Jupiter, 
whom  he  helped  to  enthrone  in  place  of  Saturn.  Mercury  is 
sent  to  Prometheus  and  offers  him  freedom  from  torture  on 
condition  that  he  reveal  the  secret  of  averting  the  fall  of 
Jupiter.  This  Prometheus  refuses  to  do  because  it  would  seat 
the  tyrant  more  securely  on  his  throne.  He  is  then  left  to 
the  untender  mercies  of  the  Furies.  These  torture  him  by 
making  him  contemplate  all  the  misery  of  the  world  and  the 
futility  of  hoping  for  any  release  from  it.  They  expose  to 
view  the  wrecks  of  all  the  schemes  ever  advanced  for  the 
regeneration  of  society,  and  especially  the  hate,  bloodshed, 
and  misery  which  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  most  promising 
of  them  all,  the  French  Eevolution.  They  remind  him  that 
Christ's  mission  is  a  failure;  that  His  followers  are  perse- 
cuted; and  that  Christianity  has  not  lessened  the  deceit  and 
selfishness  of  man.  The  anguish  of  Prometheus  is  mental 
rather  than  physical.    He  cries  out  to  the  Furies 

Thy  words  are  like  a  cloud  of  winged  snakes. 
And  yet  I  pity  those  they  torture  not. 

His  hope  and  optimism,  however,  triumph  over  all;  and  the 
Furies  vanish.  A  chorus  of  spirits  come  to  console  him  and 
promise  that  he  shall  overcome  Death.  Prometheus  feels, 
nevertheless,  that  all  hope  is  vain  without  love.  Conditions 
will  remain  as  they  are  until  Asia,  the  spirit  of  love  in  nature, 
will  be  freed.  At  the  end  of  the  first  act  one  of  the  nymphs, 
Panthea,  departs  to  seek  Asia.  She  is  found  rn  a  lovely  vale 
and  is  described  as  a  being  of  exquisite  beauty,  "whose  foot- 
steps pave  the  world  with  loveliness."  Panthea  then  con- 
ducted Asia  to  the  cave  of  Demogorgon.  This  being  has  neither 
limb,  nor  form,  nor  outline;  yet  it  is  felt  to  be  a  living  spirit. 
Asia  asks  it  when  will  the  destined  hour  arrive  for  the  release 


POLITICS  79 

of  Prometheus.  The  answer  is  ''Behold!"  and  just  then  the 
roof  of  the  cave  bursts  asunder,  and  the  chariots  of  the  Hours 
are  seen  passing  by.  One  of  them  stops  and  tells  Asia  that 
nightfall  ''will  wrap  heaven's  kingless  throne  in  lasting  night." 
Asia  is  transformed  before  them.  Misery  gives  place  to  love 
and  joy.  Another  spirit  with  "dove-like  eyes  of  hope"  con- 
ducts Asia  to  the  throne  of  Jupiter. 

The  third  act  presents  the  catastrophe.  It  opens  with  a 
long  speech  of  Jupiter  in  which  he  exults  over  what  he  be- 
lieves to  be  the  approaching  conquest  of  man's  soul.  Little 
does  he  realize,  however,  that  his  fall  is  at  hand.  The  car  of 
the  Hour  arrives  with  Demogorgon.  At  this  sight  Jupiter  is 
filled  with  terror  and  exclaims,  "Awful  shape,  what  art  thou?" 
Demogorgon  answers,  "Eternity.  Demand  no  direr  name. 
Descend  and  follow  me  down  the  abyss."  The  secret  is  now 
revealed.  Jupiter  has  just  married  Thetis  and  the  child  of 
this  union  is  to  destroy  his  father.  The  curse  is  fulfilled; 
Jupiter  falls  into  the  abyss.  Prometheus  is  then  released  by 
Hercules.  Strength  ministers  to  wisdom,  courage,  and  long- 
suffering  Love,  as  a  slave  to  its  master.  Prometheus  is  united 
with  Asia;  mankind  with  love.  The  Golden  Age  has  at  last) 
arrived.  Henceforth  there  is  to  be  no  tyranny  nor  evil  of  any 
kind.  Love  is  to  be  supreme  and  is  to  make  all  wise  and 
happy.  Man  is  released  from  bondage  and  is  now  free  to  do 
as  reason  directs. 

The  loathsome  mask  has  fallen,  the  man  remains, 
Scepterless,  free,  uncircumscribed,  but  man 
Equal,  unclassed,  tribeless,  and  nationless, 
Exempt  from  awe,  worship,  degree,  the  king 
Over  himself;  just,  gentle,  wise;  but  man. 
Passionless?  no,  yet  free  from  guilt  or  pain, 
Which  were,  for  his  will  made  or  suffered  them, 
Nor  yet  exempt,  tho'  ruling  them  like  slaves, 
From  chance,  and  death,  and  mutability, 
Tlie  clogs  of  tliat  which  else  might  oversojir 
The  loftiest  star  of  unascended  heaven, 
Pinnacled  dim  in  the  intense  inane. 

The  drama  should  end  here.  The  tyrant  is  overthrown  and 
man  is  happy.  In  a  note  on  the  play  Mrs.  Shelley  says  tliat  it 
originally  had  but  three  acts.     Later  on   a   fourth   act  was 


80  POLITICS 

added,  a  sort  of  hymn  of  rejoicing  over  the  fulfillment  of  the 
prophecies  with  regard  to  Prometheus.  In  it  specters  of  the 
dead  hours  bear  time  to  tomb  in  ete^nit3^  The  spirits  of 
the  mind  reappear  and  chant  their  hymns  of  praise  and  thanks- 
giving. 

P  Prometheus  represents  mankind.  He  is  oppressed  by  the 
hrery  being,  Jupiter,  to  whom  he  himself  has  given  power. 
Jupiter  must  not  be  considered  as  the  abstract  power  of  moral 
evil.  He  represents  those  institutions,  political  and  religious, 
which  man  himself  has  created.  Jupiter's  downfall  is  brought 
about  by  his  own  offspring;  man  himself  can  overthrow 
tyranny.  In  the  marriage  of  Jupiter  and  Thetis,  Shelley  seems 
to  portray  tlie  overweening  arrogance  through  which  a  polit- 
ical tyranny  invests  itself  with  the  pomp  of  a  false  glory  and 
which  always  precedes  its  downfall.  The  form  of  Demogor- 
gou  assumed  by  the  child  of  this  union  undoubtedl}'  means 
Revolution,  that  Revolution  which  follows  the  mari-iage  oi' 
unrighteous  power  to  arrogant  display.'"^  Demogorgon  may 
be  looked  upon,  too,  as  Reason ;  Asia,  the  Spirit  of  Love,  comes 
in  contact  with  Demogorgon,  Reason,  and  moves  it  to  action. 
The  poet  here  means  to  image  to  us  the  profound  truth,  that  it 
is  only  through  contact  with  emotion  that  abstract  thought 
can  become  roused  to  action  and  be  a  vital  and  dynamic  power 
in  the  sphere  of  practical  life.  It  is  only  after  having  met 
Demogorgon  that  the  power  of  Asia  is  set  free.  If  reason  must 
be  inspired  by  passion  before  it  can  prevail,  ^'love  on  the  other 
hand  must  become  instinct  with  wisdom  before  it  can  be  made 
manifest  in  tliat  glory  which  shall  save  the  world. "J 

After  the  interview  with  Demogorgon,  Asia,  love,  is  trans- 
figured, ''its  rosy  warmth  pervades  the  whole  creation,  and  its 
power  is  revealed  triumphantly  supreme.  This  is  the  act 
through  which,  in  the  secret  mystery  of  creation,  the  redemp- 
tion of  Prometheus  is  achieved.  Thus  through  a  double  proc- 
ess, destructive  and  constructive — by  revolution  and  by  love — 
is  set  free  the  human  soul.'"*''*  Rossetti  regnrds  I'l-ometlieus 
as  the  anthropomorphic  God,  created  by  the  mind  of  man,  and 
tyrannizing  over  its  creator;  but  surely,  as  Miss  Scudder  says, 
the  myth  is  quite  as  much  political  as  theological. 


""V.  D.  Scudder:   Introduction  to  Prometheus  TJnl)Ound. 
•"•Ibid. 


POLITICS  81 

Prometheus  Unbound  was  fiercely  attacked  iu  the  Quarterly, 
and  Shelley,  thinking  that  Southey  was  the  author  of  the 
article,  wrote  to  him  about  it.  Southey  answered  him  that  he 
did  not  write  the  article  in  question,  and  at  the  same  time 
read  him  a  lecture  on  the  necessity  of  giving  up  his  evil  prin- 
ciples. Shelley  felt  that  he  was  being  misjudged  and  wrong- 
fully accused  by  one  whom  he  could  not  suspect  of  ill-will, 
and  this  no  doubt  helped  to  keep  him  a  radical,  even  if  he  were 
inclined  at  this  time  to  become  more  conservative. 

During  1819,  meetings  were  held  all  over  the  country  by  the 
laboring  classes  to  consider  ways  and  means  of  bettering  their 
condition.  On  August  16,  1819,  a  huge  one  was  held  at  St. 
Peter's  Field,  Manchester,  with  the  view  of  urging  parliamen- 
tary reform.  The  magistrates  had  previously  declared  that 
such  a  meeting  would  be  illegal  and  the  city  authorities  had 
made  extensive  preparations  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace. 
After  an  enormous  crowd  had  gathered  around  the  speakers, 
forty  of  the  yeomanry  cavalry  attempted  to  make  their  way 
through  the  multitude  to  arrest  the  ringleaders.  When  it  was 
found  that  they  could  not  reach  the  platform  a  hasty  order 
was  given  to  three  hundred  hussars  to  disperse  the  crowd. 
They  made  a  terrific  charge,  which  resulted  in  the  killing  of 
six  people  and  in  the  wounding  of  fifty  or  sixty  others.  The 
news  of  this  afifair  roused  in  Shelley  violent  emotions  of  in- 
dignation and  compassion.  Writing  to  his  publisher,  Mr. 
Oilier,  he  thus  comments  on  the  affair:  "The  same  day  that 
your  letter  came,  came  the  news  of  the  Manchester  work,  and 
the  torrent  of  my  indignation  has  not  yet  done  boiling  in  my 
veins.  I  wait  anxiously  to  hear  how  the  country  will  express 
its  sense  of  this  bloodj-,  murderous  oppression  of  its  destroyers. 
Something  must  be  done.  What,  yet,  I  know  not."  He  calls 
it  "an  infernal  business"  and  says  that  it  is  but  the  distant 
thunders  of  the  terrible  storm  which  is  fast  approaching. 
"The  tyrants  here,  as  in  the  French  Revolution,  have  first  shed 
blood." 

The  Manchester  "massacre"  inspired  Shelley  to  write  the 
Mask  of  Anarchy.  Leigh  Hunt  was  asked  to  print  it  in  The 
Examiner,  but  he  refused.  "I  did  not  insert  it,"  Hunt  wrote, 
"because  I  thought  that  the  public  at  large  had  not  become 


82  roLiTics 

sufficiently  discerning  to  do  justice  to  the  sincerity  and  kind- 
heartedness  of  the  spirit  that  walked  in  this  flaming  robe  of 
verse."  In  this  poem  Shelley  is  not  so  vague  and  indefinite 
as  he  is  in  Prometheus  Unlound.  He  shows  there  that  he  has 
a  grasp  of  the  practical  wants  of  men.  '-What  art  thou,  Free- 
dom ?"  Shelley  asks,  and  he  replies : 

Thou  art  clothes,  and  fire,  and  food 
For  the  trampled  multitude — 
No — in  countries  that  are  free 
Such  starvation  cannot  be 
As  in  England  now  we  see. 

Even  here  Shelley  exhorts  his  countrymen  to  seek  reform 
through  peaceful  methods.  He  tells  them  to  oppose  meekness 
and  resoluteness  to  violence  and  tyranny ;  and  then  the  tyrants 

will  return  with  shame 
To  the  place  from  which  they  came 
And  the  blood  thus  shed  will  speak 
In  hot  blushes  on  their  cheek. 

There  is  very  little  recorded  concerning  the  relations  that 
existed  between  Kobert  Owen  (England's  first  socialist  of 
note)  and  Shelley.  One  of  Owen's  biographers  states  that 
Shelley's  spirit  appeared  to  Owen  at  a  spiritualistic  seance, 
and  that  Owen  exclaimed,  "Oh,  there  is  my  old  friend,  Shel- 
ley." It  is  certain  at  any  rate  that  Owen  was  a  close  friend 
of  Godwin,  and  consequently  had  at  least  an  indirect  influence 
on  Shelley.  Queen  Mah,  moreover,  was  the  gospel  of  the 
Owenites. 

For  Shelley's  later  views  we  are  indebted  to  his  PJiUosophical 
View  of  Reform  which  Professor  Dowden  discusses  in  his 
volume  Transcripts  and  Studies.  Shelley  wrote  to  Leigh  Hunt 
on  May  26,  1820,  and  enquired  if  he  knew  any  bookseller  who 
would  publish  an  octavo  volume,  entitled  a  Philosophical 
View  of  Reform.  The  plan  of  the  work  was  to  include  chap- 
ters on:  (1)  The  sentiment  of  the  necessity  of  change;  (2)  its 
causes  and  its  objects;  (3)  practicability  and  necessity  of 
change;  (4)  state  of  parties  as  regards  it;  (5)  probable,  pos- 
sible, and  desirable  mode  in  which  it  should  be  effected.  The 
work  was  never  published,  however,  and  it  is  said  that  the 
manuscript  cannot  now  be  found. ^"^ 


""Letter  of  Prof.  Dowden  to  the  author. 


POLITICS  83 

The  treatise  opens  with  a  brief  historical  survey  of  the  chief 
movements  on  behalf  of  freedom  which  have  taken  place  since 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  He  describes  historical 
Christianity  as  a  perversion  of  the  utterances  and  actions  of 
the  great  reformer  of  Nazareth.  ''The  names  borrowed  from 
the  life  and  opinions  of  Jesus  Christ  were  employed  as  sym- 
bols of  domination  and  imposture;  and  a  system  of  liberality 
and  equality,  for  such  was  the  system  preached  by  that  great 
reformer,  was  perverted  to  support  oppression."  He  eulogizes 
the  philosophers  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  sees  in  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  the  first  fruits  of  their  teach- 
ing. Two  conditions  are  necessary  to  a  perfect  government: 
first,  "that  the  will  of  the  people  should  be  represented  as  it 
is";  secondly,  "that  that  will  should  be  as  wise  and  just  as 
possible."  The  former  of  these  obtains  in  the  United  States ; 
and,  in  so  far  as  the  people  are  represented,  "America  fulfills 
imperfectly  and  indirectly  the  last  and  most  important  con- 
dition of  perfect  government." 

He  then  condemns  "the  device  of  public  credit"  and  the  new 
aristocracy  which  arose  with  it.  This  new  order  has  its  basis 
in  fraud,  as  the  old  had  its  basis  in  force.  It  includes  attor- 
neys, excisemen,  directors,  government  pensioners,  usurers, 
stock  jobbers,  with  their  dependents  and  descendants. 

What  are  the  reforms  that  he  advocates?  Today  some  of 
them  would  be  considered  too  mild  by  even  a  conservative. 
He  would  abolish  the  national  debt,  the  standing  army,  and 
tithes,  due  regard  had  to  vested  interests.  He  would  grant 
complete  freedom  to  thought  and  its  expression,  and  make  the 
dispensation  of  justice  cheap,  speedy  and  attainable  by  all. 

A  reform  government  should  appoint  tribunals  to  decide 
upon  the  claims  of  property  holders.  True,  political  institu- 
tions ought  to  defend  every  man  in  the  retention  of  property 
acquired  through  labor,  economy,  skill,  genius  or  any  similar 
powers  honorably  and  innocently  exerted.  "But  there  is  an- 
other species  of  property  which  has  its  foundation  in  usurpa- 
tion or  imposture,  or  violence."  "Of  this  nature  is  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  the  property  enjoyed  by  the  aristocracy  and  the 
great  fundholders."  "Claims  to  property  of  this  kind  should 
be  compromised  under  the  supervision  of  public  tribunals." 


84  POLITICS 

From  an  abstract  point  of  view,  universal  suffrage  is  just 
and  desirable,  but  since  it  would  lead  to  an  attempt  to  abolish 
the  monarchy  and  to  civil  war  some  other  measure  must  be 
tried  instead.  Mr.  Bentham  and  other  writers  have  urged  tlie 
admission  of  females  to  the  right  of  suffrage.  ''This  attempt," 
Shelley  writes,  "seems  somewhat  immature."  The  people 
should  be  better  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons  than 
they  are  at  present.  He  would  allow  the  House  of  Lords 
to  remain  for  the  present  to  represent  the  aristocracy. 

All  reform  should  be  based  upon  the  principle  of  ''the 
natural  equality  of  man,  not  as  regards  property,  but  as  re- 
gards rights." 

"Whether  the  reform,  which  is  now  inevitable,  be  gradual 
and  moderate  or  violent  and  extreme  depends  largely  on  the 
action  of  the  government."  If  the  government  refuse  to  act, 
the  nation  will  take  the  task  of  reformation  into  its  own 
hands  and  the  abolition  of  monarchy  must  inevitably  follow. 
"No  friend  of  mankind  and  of  his  country  can  desire  that 
such  a  crisis  should  arrive."  "If  reform  shall  be  begun  by 
the  existing  government,  let  us  be  contented  with  a  limited 
beginning  with  any  whatsoever  opening.  Nothing  is  more  idle 
than  to  reject  a  limited  benefit  because  we  cannot  without 
great  sacrifices  obtain  an  unlimited  one."  "We  shall  demand 
more  and  more  with  firmness  and  moderation,  never  anticipat- 
ing but  never  deferring  the  moment  of  successful  opposition, 
so  that  the  people  may  become  capable  of  exercising  the  func- 
tions of  sovereignty  in  proportion  -as  they  acquire  the  posses- 
sion of  it." 

The  struggle  between  the  oi3pressed  and  the  oppressors  will 
be  merely  nominal  if  the  oppressed  are  enlightened  and  ani- 
mated by  a  distinct  and  powerful  apprehension  of  their  object. 
"The  minority  perceive  the  approaches  of  the  development  of 
an  irresistible  force,  by  the  influence  of  the  public  opinion 
of  their  weakness  on  those  political  forms,  of  which  no  gov- 
ernment but  an  absolute  despotism  is  devoid.  They  divest 
themselves  of  their  usurped  distinctions,  and  the  public  tran- 
quillity is  not  disturbed  by  the  revolution."  The  true  patriot, 
then,  should  endeavor  to  enligliten  the  nation  and  animate  it 
with  enthusiasm  ;ind  confidence.     lie  will  endeavor  to  rnllv 


POLITICS  85 

round  one  standard  the  divided  friends  of  liberty,  and  make 
them  forget  the  subordinate  objects  with  regard  to  whicli  tliey 
differ  bj'  appealing  to  that  respecting  which  they  are  all 
agreed. 

Shelley  seems  to  think  that  revolutionary  wars  are  seldom 
or  never  necessary.  A  vigilant  spirit  of  opposition,  together 
with  a  campaign  of  enlightenment,  will  usually  suflBce  to 
bring  about  the  desired  reforms.  It  is  better  to  gain  what 
we  demand  by  a  process  of  negotiation  which  would  occupy 
twenty  years  than  to  do  anything  which  might  tend  towards 
civil  war.  "The  last  resort  of  resistance  is  undoubtedly  in- 
surrection." 

The  work  ends  with  a  consideration  of  the  nature  and  con- 
sequences of  war.  "War  waged  from  whatever  motive  ex- 
tinguishes the  sentiment  of  reason  and  justice  in  the  mind." 

Shelley,  following  Godwin  and  Condorcet,  was  a  firm  be- 
liever in  the  perfectibility  of  human  nature.  "By  perfectible," 
Godwin  writes,  **it  is  not  meant  that  man  is  capable  of  being 
wrought  to  perfection.  The  idea  of  absolute  perfection  is 
scarcely  within  the  grasp  of  human  understanding."  "The 
wise  man  is  satisfied  with  nothing.  Finite  things  must  be 
perpetually  capable  of  increase  and  advancement;  it  would 
argue,  therefore,  extreme  folly  to  rest  in  any  given  state  of 
improvement  and  imagine  we  had  attained  our  summit. "^^" 
In  a  letter  to  E.  Hitchener,  July  25,  1811,  Shelley  writes: 
"You  say  that  equality  is  unattainable;  so,  will  I  observe  is 
perfection ;  yet  they  both  symbolize  in  their  nature,  they  both 
demand  that  an  unremitting  tendency  towards  themselves 
should  be  made;  and  the  nearer  society  approaches  towards 
this  point  the  happier  it  will  be." 

The  development  of  the  race,  they  believe,  has  been  along 
the  following  lines :  Man  emerged  from  the  savage  state  under 
the  attraction  of  pleasure  and  the  repulsion  of  pain.  Self- 
love,  his  only  motive  of  action,  made  him  at  once  social  and 
industrious,  led  him  to  confound  happiness  with  unregulated 
enjoyment,  made  him  avaricious  and  violent,  and  caused  the 
strong  to  oppress  the  weak  and  the  weak  to  conspire  against 
the   strong.     Slavery  and  corruption   have  consequently  fol- 


°PoHtical  Justice,  IV,  2. 


86  POLITICS 

lowed  on  the  liberty  and  inuocence  of  primitive  times.  But  as 
man  is  perfectible  this  condition  of  things  cannot  last.  The 
diffusion  of  knowledge  together  with  the  discoveries  and  in- 
ventions recently  made,  have  already  been  productive  of  great 
progress.  Humanity  is  now  fairly  started  on  a  career  of  con- 
quest; the  emancipation  of  the  mind  is  rapidly  advancing. 
Soon  moralitj^  itself  will  come  to  be  rationally  viewed ;  it  will 
be  universally  acknowedged  that  there  is  only  one  law,  that 
of  nature;  only  one  code,  that  of  reason;  only  one  throne,  that 
of  justice;  and  only  one  altar,  that  of  concord.^^^  Shelley  had 
unbounded  faith  in  human  nature  and  believed  that  the  down- 
fall of  tyranny  must  soon  take  place.  He  believed  that  the 
world  would  resolve  itself  into  one  large  communistic  family, 
where  every  man  would  be  independent  and  free. 

Godwin  says  that  "there  will  be  no  war,  no  crime,  no  admin- 
istration of  justice,  as  it  is  called,  and  no  government.  Be- 
sides this  there  will  be  neither  disease,  anguish,  melancholy  or 
resentment.'"^-  The  sun  of  reason  will  of  itself  disperse  all  the 
mists  of  ignorance  and  the  jDestilential  vapors  of  vice.  It  will 
bring  out  all  the  beaut,y  and  goodness  of  man.  Love  will  be 
universal;  everybody  will  seek  the  good  of  all.  Earth,  Shelley 
thinks,  will  soon  become  a  garden  of  delight. 

O  Happy  Earth,  reality  of  Heaven 
Of  purest  Spirits  thou  pure  dwelling-place 
Where  care  and  sorrow,  impotence  and  crime 
Languor,  disease,  and  ignorance  dare  not  come.^^^ 


"^Flint:  Philosophy  of  History,  p.  323. 
^^'PoHtical  Justice,  Book  8,  9. 
"'Queen  Mab. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

RKLIGION  AND.rHILOSOPlIY 

We  now  come  to  that  part  of  our  subject  which  is  the  most 
difficult  to  handle — Shelley's  religion.  There  are  so  manj' 
seeming  contradictions  in  his  utterances  on  this  subject  that 
it  would  appear  impossible  at  first  sight  to  reconcile  them  and 
bring  out  of  them  a  consistent  form  of  belief.  Before  he  went 
to  Oxford  he  had  attacked  Christianity,  still  on  his  entrance 
to  that  university  he  made  the  required  profession  of  belief 
in  tlie  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England  as  by  law  estab- 
lished. How  are  we  going  to  reconcile  this  with  his  love  for 
truth?  One  cannot  get  away  from  the  difficulty  by  saying 
that  this  profession  was  a  mere  formalit5\  Thousands  of  non- 
conformists throughout  the  land  denied  themselves  the  bene- 
fits of  a  university  education  because  they  scorned  to  play  the 
hypocrite. 

Shelley's  views  were  fairly  orthodox  up  to  the  time  of  his 
going  to  Oxford.  Zasfrozzi,  printed  in  1810,  contains  a  bitter 
attack  on  atheism ;  and  in  a  letter  to  Stockdale  Shelley  dis- 
claims any  intention  of  advocating  atheism  in  The  Wandering 
Jetv.  He,  no  doubt,  was  unorthodox  in  his  views  regarding  the 
nature  of  God;  but  his  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
and  in  the  existence  of  a  First  Cause  is  clearly  shown  in  a 
letter  to  Hogg  dated  January  3,  1811.  He  writes:  "I  may  not 
be  able  to  adduce  proofs,  but  I  think  that  the  leaf  of  a  tree, 
the  meanest  insect  on  which  we  trample,  are  in  themselves 
arguments  more  conclusive  than  unj  which  can  be  advanced, 
that  some  vast  intellect  animates  infinity.  If  we  disbelieve 
this,  the  strongest  argument  in  support  of  the' existence  of  a 
future  state  instantly  becomes  annihilated.  .  .  .  Love, 
love,  infinite  in  extent,  eternal  in  duration,  yet  allowing  your 
theory  in  that  point,  perfectible,  should  be  tlie  reward;  but 
can  we  suppose  that  this  reward  will  arise,  spontaneously,  as 
a  necessary  appendage  to  our  nature,  or  that  our  nature  itself 
could  be  without  cause — a  God?  When  do  we  see  eft'ects  arise 
without  causes?''  From  this  point  a  rapid  change  takes  place 
in  his  opinions.  This  is  the  work  of  the  sceptic  Hogg,  who 
sported  with  him,  now  arguing  for,  now  against  Christianity, 

87 


88  RELIGION    AND    PHILOSOPHY 

with  the  result  that  Shelley  himself  became  sceptical.  His 
disbelief  is  due  also  to  the  influence  of  the  works  of  Godwin 
and  the  French  materialists,  Helvetius,  Holbach,  Condorcet 
and  Rousseau. 

In  his  Si/stem  of  Nature  Helvetius  makes  an  eloquent  plea 
for  atheism.  He  denies  that  any  kind  of  spiritual  substance 
exists.  In  the  universe  there  is  nothing  but  matter  and  mo- 
tion. Man  is  the  result  of  certain  combinations  of  matter ;  his 
activities  are  matter  in  motion.  God,  the  soul,  and  immor- 
tality are  the  inventions  of  impostors  to  lash  men  into 
obedience  and  submission.  In  Queen  Mob  Shelley  represents 
God  and  religion  as  the  cause  of  evil,  and  scoffs  at  the  idea  of 
creation. 

From  an  eternity  of  idleness 
I,  God,  awoke."* 

A  blasphemous  caricature  of  our  Savior  and  of  the  doctrine 
of  redemption  is  also  there  exhibited.  Later  on  he  grew  to 
love  Christ,  although  he  declaimed  against  Christianity  as  long 
as  he  lived.  In  Prometheus  Unhound  he  treats  our  Savior 
more  reverently  than  he  did  in  Queen  Mah.  He  is  there  in 
sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  denounces  Christian- 
ity only  in  so  far  as  it  has  abandoned  ''the  faith  he  kindled." 
This  change,  no  doubt,  is  due  to  the  influence  of  his  residence 
in  Italy  and  of  his  love  for  the  Xew  Testament.  Regarding 
the  character  of  Christ  he  writes:  "They  (the  evangelists) 
have  left  sufficiently  clear  indications  of  the  genuine  character 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  rescue  it  forever  from  the  imputations  cast 
upon  it  by  their  ignorance  and  fanatacism.  "We  discover  that  He 
is  the  enemy  of  oppression  and  falsehood";"^  that  He  was 
just,  truthful,  and  merciful ;  "that  He  was  a  man  of  meek  and 
majestic  demeanor ;  of  natural  and  simple  thought  and  habits ; 
beloved  by  all,  unmoved,  solemn  and  serene." 

One  of  the  greatest  obstacles  that  prevented  Shelley  from 
understanding  Christianity  was  his  belief  in  Godwin's  doctrine 
that  sin  is  but  an  error  of  judgment.  His  wife  writes  that 
"he  believed  mankind  had  onlv  to  will  tliat  there  should  be  no 


"*Cf.  Volney,  Les  Ruines,  "Dieu  apres  avoir  passe  une  eternite  sans 
rien  faire  prit  enfin  le  dessin  de  produire  le  monde." 
^"Essay  on  ChrisUanity,  p.  291. 


RELIGION    AND   PHILOSOPHY  89 

evil  and  there  would  be  uoiie."  To  one  believing  that  media- 
tion is  superflous  in  the  work  of  sanctification,  Christianity  is 
almost  meaningless.  Three  months  before  his  death  Shelley 
expressed  his  views  with  regard  to  Christianity  as  follows : 
''I  dififer  with  Moore  in  thinking  Christianity  useful  to  the 
world;  no  man  of  sense  can  think  it  true.  ...  I  agree 
with  him  that  the  doctrines  of  the  French  and  material  phil- 
osophy are  as  false  as  they  are  pernicious;  but  still  they  are 
better  than  Christianity,  inasmuch  as  anarchy  is  better  than 
despotism ;  for  this  reason,  that  the  former  is  for  a  season,  and 
the  latter  is  eternal.""® 

The  question  whether  Shelley  was  an  atheist  or  not  must 
not  be  decided  on  one  or  two  extracts  from  his  writings  or 
even  on  any  one  work.  True  he  argued  against  theism,  but  to 
call  him  an  atheist  on  that  account  would  be  as  logical  as  to 
say  St.  Thomas  was  an  atheist  because  he  advanced  objections 
against  the  existence  of  God.  One  reason  for  the  opinion  that 
he  was  an  atheist  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  had  a  conception  of 
the  Deitj'  which  differed  from  the  Puritanical  one  then  in 
vogue.  When  he  attempted  to  show  the  nonexistence  of  God 
his  negation  was  directed  against  the  notions  of  God  which 
exhibited  Him  as  a  Being  with  human  passions,  as  an  auto- 
cratic tyrant.  In  his  letter  to  Lord  Ellenborough  he  writes: 
"To  attribute  moral  qualities  to  the  spirit  of  the  universe 
...  is  to  degrade  God  into  man."  He  denied  the  existence 
of  the  God  represented  as  "a  venerable  old  man,  seated  on  a 
throne  of  clouds,  His  breast  the  tlieater  of  various  passions 
analogous  to  those  of  humanity.  His  will  changeable  and  un- 
certain as  that  of  an  earthly  king.""^  Even  in  Queen  Mob 
we  find  a  vague  picture  of  his  conception  of  God: 

Spirit  of  Nature!  all  sufficing  power 
Necessity!  thou  mother  of  the  world! 
Unlike  the  God  of  human  error,  thou 
Eequirest  no  prayers  or  praise,  the  caprice 
Of  man's  weak  will  belongs  no  more  to  thee 
Than  do  the  changeful  passions  of  his  breast 
To  thy  unvarying  liarmony.""^ 


"•Letter  to  Horace  Smith,  April  11,  1822. 
"'Letter  to  Lord  Ellenborough,  June,  1812. 
^"Queen  Mob. 


90  RELIGION   AND   PHILOSOPHY 

But  in  the  next  canto  does  he  not  say  explicitly,  ''There  is  no 
God"  ?  In  a  note,  though,  he  explains  that  "this  negation  must 
be  understood  solely  to  affect  a  creative  Deity.  The  hypothesis 
of  a  pervading  Spirit  coeternal  with  the  universe  remains  un- 
shaken." Elsewhere  he  writes :  "The  thoughts  which  the  word 
'God'  suggest  to  the  human  mind  are  susceptible  of  as  many 
variations  as  human  minds  themselves.  The  stoic,  the  platon- 
ist,  and  the  epicurean,  the  polytheist,  the  dualist,  and  the 
trinitariau  differ  entirely  in  their  conceptions  of  its  meaning. 
They  agree  only  in  considering  it  the  most  awful  and  most 
venerable  of  names,  as  a  common  term  to  express  all  of  mys- 
tery, or  majesty,  or  power  which  the  invisible  world  contains. 
And  not  only  has  every  sect  distinct  conceptions  of  the  appli- 
cation of  this  name,  but  scarcely  two  individuals  of  the  same 
sect,  which  exercise  in  any  degree  the  freedom  of  their  judg- 
ment, or  yield  themselves  with  any  candor  of  feeling  to  the 
influences  of  the  visible,  find  perfect  coincidence  of  opinion 
to  exist  between  them.  .  .  .  God  is  neither  the  Jupiter 
who  sends  rain  upon  the  earth;  nor  the  Venus  through  whom 
all  living  things  are  produced;  nor  the  Yulcan  who  presides 
over  the  terrestrial  element  of  fire;  nor  the  Vesta  that  pre- 
serves the  light  which  is  enshrined  in  the  sun,  the  moon,  and 
the  stars.  He  is  neither  the  Proteus,  nor  the  Pan  of  the  mate- 
rial world.  But  the  word  'God'  unites  all  the  attributes  which 
these  denominations  contain  and  is  the  (inter-point)  and  over- 
ruling spirit  of  all  the  energy  and  wisdom  included  within  the 
circle  of  existing  things."^^^ 

But  did  he  not  write  The  Necessity  of  Atheism  for  which  he 
was  expelled  from  Oxford?  Even  if  he  did,  this  does  not 
prove  that  he  was  an  atheist.  We  saw  already  that  he  loved 
to  advance  objections  and  propound  difficulties  to  people  who 
thought  they  knew  everything  that  can  be  known  about  a  sub- 
ject. Many  stoutly  maintained  that  a  valid  a  priori  proof 
(usually  called  the  ontological)  can  be  advanced  for  tlie 
existence  of  God  and  it  was  against  these  that  Shelley  directed 
his  artillery.  "Why,"  Trelawny  asked  liini  once,  ''do  you  call 
yourself  an  atheist?"  "It  is  a  word  of  abuse,"  Shelley  replied, 
"to  stop  discussion ;  a  painted  devil  to  frighten  the  foolish ;  a 
threat  to  intimidate  the  wise  and  good.     I  used  it  to  express 


""Essay  on  Christianity.    Shelley  Memorials,  p.  275. 


RELIGION    AND    PHILOSOPHY  91 

my  abhorrence  of   superstition.     I  took   up   the   word   as   a 
knight  took  up  a  gauntlet  in  defiance  of  injustice.'"-" 

Leigh  Hunt  said  that  Shelley  "did  himself  injustice  with 
tlie  public  in  using  the  popular  name  of  the  Supreme  Being 
inconsiderately.  He  identified  it  solely  with  the  most  vulgar 
and  tj'rannical  notions  of  a  God  made  after  the  worst  human 
fashion,"  Southey  told  him  also  that  he  ought  not  to  call 
himself  an  athiest,  since  in  reality  he  believed  that  the  uni- 
verse is  God.^-^  ''I  love  to  doubt  and  to  discuss,"  Shelley 
writes,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  he  adopted  the  arguments 
of  Locke,  Hume,  and  Holbach.  He  does  not  doubt  the  existence 
of  God;  he  simj)ly  doubts  that  it  is  capable  of  proof.  In 
January  12,  1811,  it  seemed  to  him  that  he  had  hit  upon  the 
long-sought-for-proof.  In  a  letter  to  Hogg  he  writes:  ''Staj-, 
I  have  an  idea.  I  think  I  can  prove  the  existence  of  a  Deity — 
a  First  Cause.  I  will  ask  a  materialist,  how  came  this  uni- 
verse at  first?  He  will  answer  by  chance.  What  chance?  I 
will  answer  in  the  words  of  Spinoza :  *An  infinite  number  of 
atoms  had  been  floating  from  all  eternity  in  space,  till  at  last 
one  of  them  fortuitously  diverged  from  its  track,  which  drag- 
ging with  it  another,  formed  the  principle  of  gravitation  and 
in  consequence  the  universe.'  "What  cause  produced  this 
change,  this  chance.  For  where  do  we  know  that  causes  arise 
without  their  corresponding  effects ;  at  least  we  must  here,  on 
so  abstract  a  subject,  reason  analogically.  Was  not  this  then 
a  cause;  was  it  not  a  first  cause?  Was  not  this  first  cause  a 
Deity?  Kow  nothing  remains  but  to  prove  that  this  Deity  has 
a  care  or  rather  that  its  only  employment  consists  in  regulating 
the  present  and  future  happiness  of  its  creation.  ...  Oh  that 
this  Deity  were  the  soul  of  the  universe,  the  spirit  of  uni- 
versal, imperishable  love !  Indeed,  I  believe  it  is."  "The  Deity 
must  be  judged  by  us  from  attributes  analogical  to  our  situa- 
tion." In  a  letter  of  June  11,  1811,  he  says  God  is  ''the  exist- 
ing power  of  existence."  It  is  another  word  for  the  essence 
of  the  universe.  True  he  makes  use  of  expressions  which 
would  seem  to  contradict  the  above,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
these  should  always  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  his  more 
explicit  utterances  as  already  explained. 


"'Recollections  by  Trelawny,  p.  40. 
'"Letter  to  E.  Hitchener,  Jan.  2,  1812. 


92  RELIGION    AND   PHILOSOPHY 

There  was  a  kind  of  discrepancy  between  his  interior  thought 
and  his  exterior  attitude.  Apostle  of  reason  though  he  was, 
he  felt  the  necessity  of  appealing  to  other  sources  to  quench  the 
thirst  for  higher  things.  His  fidelity  to  the  doctrine  of  Locke, 
that  all  knowledge  originates  in  the  senses,  did  not  allow  him 
to  proclaim  this  necessity.  ^'Negateur  d'un  Dieu  personnel 
dont  les  attributs  seraient  des  reflets  des  pauvres  attributs 
humains,  il  desirait  pourtant  pouvoir  les  supporter  et  les 
croire,  niais  cette  obscure  tendance,  il  ne  sut  on  n'osa  la 
traduire  publiquement."^-^  In  his  poetry  where  he  lays  bare 
his  soul  his  belief  in  God  is  manifest.  It  is  only  when  he 
argues  that  he  would  seem  to  be  an  atheist.  This  discrepancy 
looks  like  deceit,  but  it  is  not.  It  is  honesty  rather  than 
duplicity.  He  advanced  only  those  statements  which  he 
thought  he  could  prove,  which  he  could  demonstrate  by  the 
aid  of  reason.  "It  does  not,"  lie  writes,  "prove  the  non- 
existence of  a  thing  that  it  is  not  discoverable  by  reason ; 
feeling  here  affords  us  sufficient  proof.  .  .  .  Those  who 
really  feel  the  being  of  a  God,  have  the  best  right  to  believe 
it."^-^  (True  he  goes  on  to  say  that  he  does  not  feel  the  being 
of  God,  and  must  be  content  with  reason;  but  by  this  he  may 
mean  that  he  does  not  feel  the  existence  of  the  God  of  the 
Christians.) 

After  all,  this  position  with  regard  to  the  proof  of  God's 
existence  is  not  so  very  different  from  that  of  Newman. 
"Logic,"  says  Newman,  "does  not  really  prove."  It  enables  us 
to  join  issues  with  others  ...  it  verifies  negatively.^-* 
Newman,  contrary  to  Locke,  would  inject  an  element  of  voli- 
tion into  logic.  "He  does  not,  indeed,  deny  the  possibility  of 
demonstration;  he  often  asserts  it;  but  he  holds  that  the 
demonstration  will  not  in  fact  convince."^^^  We  have  really  to 
desert  a  logical  ground  and  to  take  our  stand  upon  instinct. 

According  to  Shelley  anything  that  could  not  be  demon- 
strated should  not  be  given  to  others  as  gospel  truth. ^-'^  Now, 
feelings  cannot  be  demonstrated,  and  hence  it  is  that  one  may 
feel  one  thing  and  at  the  same  time  see  that  the  senses  and 


"''Koszul:    La  Jeunesse  de  Shelley,  p.  132. 
"'Letter  to  E.  Kitchener.  Oct.  26,  1811. 
^"Grammar  of  Assent,  p.  264. 

""Leslie  Stephen:    The  Utilitarians,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  496. 
^^Ingpen,  p.  90. 


RELIGION    AND    PHILOSOPHY  93 

even  unaided  reason  show  that  the  contrary  is  true.  "Feelings 
do  not  look  so  well  as  reasonings  on  black  and  white."  Later 
on  he  said  that  materialism  ''allows  its  disciples  to  talk  and 
dispenses  them  from  thinking."^^^  The  opposition  which 
Shellej'  experienced  forced  him  to  argue. 

When  Shelley  wrote  The  Necessity  of  Atheism  he  was  at 
most  only  an  agnostic.  This  word  was  first  used  by  Huxley 
in  1859  and  if  it  had  been  in  use  in  1811  it  may  be  that  Shel- 
ley's pamphlet  TJie  Necessity  of  Atheism  would  have  had  for 
its  title  ''Tlie  jS^ecessity  of  Agnosticism."  No  doubt  agnostics 
are  often  atheists,  but  they  are  not  necessarily  so.  ''A  man 
may  be  an  agnostic  simply  or  an  agnostic  who  is  also  an 
atheist.  He  may  be  a  scientific  materialist  and  no  more,  or 
he  may  combine  atheism  with  his  materialism;  consequently 
while  it  would  be  unjust  to  class  agnostics,  materialists  or 
pantheists  as  necessarily  also  atheists,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
atheism  is  clearly  perceived  to  be  implied  in  certain  phases 
of  all  these  systems.  There  are  so  many  shades  and  grada- 
tions of  thought  by  which  one  form  of  a  philosophy  merges 
into  another,  so  much  that  is  opinionative  and  personal 
woven  into  the  various  individual  expositions  of  systems,  that, 
to  be  impartially  fair,  each  individual  must  be  classed  by  him 
self  as  atheist  or  theist.  Indeed  more  upon  his  own  assertion 
or  direct  teaching  than  by  reason  of  any  supposed  implication 
in  the  system  he  advocates  must  this  classification  be  made. 
The  agnostic  may  be  a  theist  if  he  admits  the  existence  of  a 
being  behind  and  beyond  nature  even  while  he  asserts  that 
such  a  being  is  both  unprovable  and  unknowable."^^^ 

With  regard  to  the  sources  of  Shelley's  views  on  religion 
there  is  considerable  difference  of  opinion.  S.  Bernthsen 
maintains  that  nothing  contributed  so  much  to  the  develop- 
ment of  his  genius  and  of  his  world-view  as  Spinoza's  philos- 
ophy.^-^ Professor  Dowden,  on  the  other  hand,  holds  that 
although  Shelley  worked  at  a  translation  of  Spinoza's  Trac- 
tdtus    Theologico   Politicus   several   times,   still    "we   find    no 


^"Essay  on  Life. 

^"Catholic  Encyclopedia,  Vol.  II. 

'""Doch  ist  vielleicht  nichts  fur  die  Gestaltung  seines  eigeuartigen 
Genius  und  fiir  die  Richtung  seiner  poetischen  Weltanschauung  von  so 
ma  geliender  bedeutung  gewesen,  wie  die  Philosophie  Spinoza's." 


94  RELIGION    AND    I'HILOSOPHY 

evidence  that  he  received  in  3011th  any  adequate  or  profound 
impression,  as  Goethe  did,  from  the  purest  and  loveliest  spirit 
among  philosophical  seekers  after  God.  Of  far  greater  in- 
fluence with  Shelley  than  Spinoza  or  Kant  were  those  arrogant 
thinkers  who  prepared  the  soil  of  France  for  the  ploughshare 
of  revolution."^^°  And  Helen  Eichter  in  two  articles  in  English 
Studies,  vol.  30,  shows  that  some  of  the  quotations  from  Shelley 
used  by  Miss  Bernthsen  may  be  traced  to  other  sources  besides 
Spinoza. 

Shelley's  notions  on  belief  can  be  traced  to  Locke  and  not  to 
Spinoza.  In  the  first  book  of  the  Essay  concerning  the  human 
understanding,  Locke  attempts  to  prove  that  there  are  no 
innate  ideas.  To  the  objection  that  the  universal  acceptance 
of  certain  principles  is  proof  of  their  innateness,  he  replies 
that  no  principles  are  universally  accepted.  You  cannot  point 
to  one  principle  of  morality,  he  says,  that  is  accepted  by  all 
peoples.  Standards  of  morality  differ  in  different  nations  and 
at  different  times.  How  then  are  our  ideas  acquired?  The 
second  book  of  the  Essay  is  devoted  to  showing  that  they 
originate  in  experience.  Experience,  Locke  teaches,  is  two- 
fold :  Sensatio7),  or  the  perception  of  external  phenomena ;  and 
Refection,  or  the  perception  of  the  internal  phenomena,  that 
is,  of  the  activity  of  the  understanding  itself.  These  two  are 
the  sources  of  all  our  ideas.  In  the  Essay,  II,  1-2,  we  read: 
"All  ideas  come  from  sensation  and  reflection.  .  .  . 
Whence  has  it  (mind)  all  the  materials  of  reason  and  knowl- 
edge ?  To  this  I  answer  in  one  word,  from  experience ;  on  that 
all  our  knowledge  is  founded  and  from  that  it  ultimately  de- 
rives itself."  In  Book  IV,  2,  Locke  says :  '"Rational  knowledge 
is  the  perception  of  the  connection  and  agreement  or  disagree- 
ment and  repugnancy  of  any  of  our  ideas.  .  .  .  Prob- 
ability is  the  appearance  of  agreement  upon  fallilde  proofs. 
.  .  .  The  entertainment  the  mind  gives  this  sort  of  propo- 
sition is  called  belief,  assent,  or  opinion." 

In  his  notes  to  Queen  Mah,  Shelley  writes:  "When  a  propo- 
sition is  offered  to  the  mind,  it  perceives  the  agreement  or  dis- 
agreement of  the  ideas  of  which  it  is  composed.  A  i^erception 
of  their  agreement  is  termed  belief.     .     .     .     Belief  then  is  a 


""Dowden's  Life,  Vol.  I,  p.  330. 


RELIGION    AND    THILOSOPHY  95 

passion  the  strength  of  which,  like  every  other  passion,  is  in 
precise  proportion  to  the  degrees  of  excitement.  The  degrees 
of  excitement  are  three.  The  senses  are  the  sonrces  of  all 
knowledge  to  the  mind;  consequently  tlieir  evidence  claims 
the  strongest  assent.  The  decision  of  the  mind  founded  upon 
our  experience,  derived  from  these  sources,  claims  the  next 
degree.  The  experience  of  others  whidi  addresses  itself  to  tlie 
former  one,  occupies  the  lowest  degree."  This  reminds  one  of 
Locke's  division  of  knowledge  into  three  parts — intuitive, 
demonstrative,  and  sensitive. 

In  the  same  note  to  Queen  Malt,  Shelley  says :  ''The  mind  is 
active  in  tlie  investigation  in  order  to  perfect  the  state  of  per- 
ception of  the  relation  which  the  component  ideas  of  the  propo- 
sition bear  to  each,  which  is  passive.'^  And  in  Locke,  II,  22, 
we  read:  ''The  mind  in  respect  of  its  simple  ideas  is  wholly 
passive  and  receives  them  all  from  the  experience  and  opera- 
tions of  things.  .  .  .  The  origin  of  mixed  modes  is,  how- 
ever, quite  different.  The  mind  often  exercises  an  active  power 
in  making  these  several  combinations  called  notions." 

According  to   Spinoza,  judgment,   perception,  and  volition 

are  one  and  the  same  thing.  "At  singularis  volitio  et  idea  unum 

et  idem  sunt."^^^     Shelley,  on  the  other  liand,  says  that  many 

falsely  imagine  "that  belief  is  an  act  of  volition  in  consequence 

of  which  it  may  be  regulated  by  the  mind.""-    Here  we  find 

reflected  the  philosophical  ideas  of  Sir   William  Drummond, 

in  whose  Academical  Questions,  Shelley  writes,  "the  most  clear 

and  vigorous  statement  of  the  intellectual  system  is  to  be 
found.""3 

According  to  Drummond,  reasoning  is  entirely  independent 
of  volition.  No  man  pretends  that  he  can  choose  whether  he 
shall  feel  or  not.  It  is  not  because  the  mind  previously  wills  it 
that  one  association  of  ideas  gives  place  to  another.  It  is  be- 
cause the  new  ideas  excite  that  attention  wliich  the  old  no 
longer  employ.  Trains  of  ideas  may  be  always  referred  to  one 
principal  idea.  "Whatever  be  the  state  of  the  soul,  we  always 
find  it  to  result  from  some  one  prevailing  sentiment,  or  idea. 


^^'Ethics,  II. 

'''Notes  to  Queen  Mab. 

^'^Essay  on  Life,  ed.  by  Mrs.  Shelley,  Vol.  I,  p.  226. 


96  RELIGION   AND    PHILOSOPHY 

which  determines  the  association  of  our  thoughts  and  directs 
for  a  time  the  course  which  they  take."^**  We  are  impelled  to 
action  by  the  influence  of  the  stronger  motive.  In  his  letter 
to  Lord  Ellenborough,  Shelley  holds  that  "belief  and  disbelief 
are  utterly  distinct  from  and  unconnected  with  volition.  They 
are  the  apprehension  of  the  agreement  or  disagreement  of  the 
ideas  which  compose  any  proposition.  Belief  is  an  involun- 
tary operation  of  the  mind,  and,  like  other  passions,  its  in- 
tensity is  purely  proportionate  to  the  degrees  of  excite- 
ment."^^^  There  is  no  certainty  that  Shelley  was  acquainted 
with  the  works  of  Spinoza  when  he  wrote  Queen  Mai.  It  is 
likely  that  he  obtained  his  Spinozan  views  from  William  Drum- 
mond. 

"It  is  necessary  to  prove,"  Shelley  wrote,  "that  it  (the  uni- 
verse) was  created;  until  that  is  clearly  demonstrated  we 
may  reasonably  suppose  that  it  has  endured  from  all  eternity. 
.  .  .  It  is  easier  to  suppose  that  the  universe  has  existed 
from  all  eternity  than  to  conceive  a  being  (beyond  its  limits) 
capable  of  creating  it."^^*'  Again  in  his  Essay  on  a  future 
state:  "But  let  thought  be  considered  as  some  peculiar  sub- 
stance which  permeates,  and  is  the  cause  of,  the  animation  of 
living  things.  Why  should  that  substance  be  assumed  to  be 
something  essentially  distinct  from  all  others  and  exempt  from 
subjection  to  those  laws  from  which  no  other  substance  is 
exempt."    To  Shelley  everything  was  God. 

Spirit  of  Nature !  here ! 

In  this  interminable  wilderness 

Of  worlds,  at  whose  immensity 

Even  soaring  fancy  staggers 

Here  is  thy  flitting  temple. 

Yet  not  the  slightest  leaf 

That  quivers  to  the  breeze 

Is  less  instinct  with  thee; 

Yet  not  the  meanest  worm 

That  lurks  in  graves  and  fattens  on  the  dead 

Less  shares  thv  eternal  breath.^" 


"*P.  17,  Academical  Questions. 
"'Ingpen,  Vol.  I,  p.  327. 
'"Notes  to  Queen  Mab. 
"^Queen  Mab. 


RELIGION  AND  rillLOSOPHY  97 

With  Spinoza,  Drummond  maintains  that  two  substances 
having  ditferent  attributes  can  have  nothing  in  common  be- 
tween them ;  and  that  there  cannot  be  two  or  more  substances 
of  the  same  nature.  Infinite,  immaterial,  eternal,  substance 
has  nothing  in  common  with  substance  which  is  material, 
finite,  and  perishable.  How  is  it  possible,  then,  that  the  for- 
mer produced  the  latter?  "An  immaterial  substance  is  neces- 
sarily without  extension,  or  solidity,  and  never  could  have 
bestowed  what  it  never  possessed.  God  is  infinite  and  con- 
sequently his  substance  is  the  sole,  universal  and  eternal  sub- 
stance. Of  this  eternal  substance  there  are  two  modifica- 
tions— mind  and  extension.  Human  mind  is  part  of  the 
infinite  mind  of  God.  By  body  is  meant  the  mode  which  ex- 
presses the  essence  of  God,  inasmuch  as  it  is  contemplated  as 
extended  substance,  in  a  certain  limited  way,  consequently 
though  we  do  not  call  the  Deity  corporeal,  as  that  would  ex- 
press what  is  finite,  yet  we  say  that  all  extended  substance  is 
contained  in  God,  since  extension  and  mind  are  the  eternal 
attributes  of  his  essence,"^^^ 

Matter  moves  and  acts  according  to  its  own  laws;  it  pre- 
serves what  we  term  the  fair  order  of  the  universe,  and  it 
guides  the  motions  of  those  worlds  that  are  constituted  out  of 
it,  by  the  properties  which  are  inherent  in  it.  *'Why  then 
should  we  not  say  that  it  feels,  thinks  and  reasons  in  man. 
Thoughts  and  sentiments  proceed  from  peculiar  distributions 
of  atoms  in  the  human  brain,"  The  same  necessity  which 
gives  us  a  peculiar  form  and  constitution  also  gives  us  a 
peculiar  disposition  and  character.  From  these  observations 
we  may  conclude  with  certainty  that  all  bodies  are  capable  of 
being  affected  by  attraction  and  repulsion,  of  making  combi- 
nations, of  suft'ering  dissolution,  and  that  they  always  strive 
to  persevere  in  that  state  in  which  they  are  while  it  is  suitable 
to  them."^3° 

Shelley  has  the  same  thought : 

Throughout  this  varied  and  eternal  world 
Soul  is  the  only  element ;  the  block 
That  for  uncounted  ages  has  remained 
The  moveless  pillar  of  a  mountain's  weight 


"'Academical  Questions,  p.  241. 
"'Ibid.,  p.  258. 


98  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY 

Is  active  living  spirit.    Eveiy  grain 
Is  sentient  both  in  nnity  and  part 
And  the  minutest  atom  comprehends 
A  world  of  loves  and  hatreds."^ 

Again  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Kitchener,  [Jsovember  24,  1811 :  ''Yet 
that  flower  has  a  soul ;  for  what  is  soul  but  that  which  makes 
an  organized  being  to  be  what  it  is?  .  .  .  I  will  saj'  then 
that  all  nature  is  animated ;  that  microscopic  vision,  as  it  has 
discovered  to  us  millions  of  animated  beings,  so  might  it,  if 
extended,  find  that  nature  itself  was  but  a  mass  of  organized 
animation.'- 

Southej'  told  Shelley  that  he  was  a  pantheist  and  not  an 
atheist.  He  (Southej*)  says:  ''I  ought  not  to  call  myself  an 
atheist,  since  in  reality  I  believe  that  the  universe  is  God." 
'"Pantheism  in  its  narrower  and  proper  philosophic  sense  is 
any  system  which  expressly  (not  merely  by  implication)  re- 
gards the  finite  world  as  simply  a  mode,  limitation,  part  or 
aspect  of  the  one  eternal  being;  and  of  such  a  nature,  that 
from  the  standpoint  of  this  Being  no  distinct  existence  can  be 
attributed  to  it."^*^  In  so  far  as  Shelley  gives  to  nature  the 
attributes  of  God  he  is  a  pantheist.  This  he  often  does.  Thus, 
in  Julian  and  MaddaJo,  "sacred  nature";  in  The  Revolt  of 
Islam,  y,  II,  "dread  nature" ;  and  in  the  Refutation  of  Deism 
he  speaks  of  "divine  nature."  Often  tliough  he  distinguishes 
between  God  and  Nature;  and  in  this  respect  differs  from 
Spinoza  and  those  who  are  pantheists  in  the  stricter  use  of 
the  term.  Thus  in  The  Revolt  of  Islam,  IX,  14,  "by  God  and 
nature  and  necessitj'." 

There  is  another  difl'erence  between  the  pantheism  of  Shelley 
and  that  of  Spinoza.  Shelley  does  not  make  any  difference 
between  men,  animals  and  plants.  They  are  all  about  on  the 
same  level.  Spinoza  on  the  other  hand  makes  man  the  king 
and  center  of  the  Universe. 

Shelley  may  have  gotten  his  pantheistic  views  from  Volney 
and  Holbach  as  well  as  from  Drummond.  In  the  Systone  de  la 
Nature,  II,  c.  VI,  we  read:  "Tout  nous  pronne  done  que  ce 
n'est   pas   hors   de   la    nature   que    nous   devons   chercher   la 


""Queen  Mah,  IV,  p.  15. 

"'Baldwin,  J.  M.:  Dictionary  of  Philosophy  and  Psychology,  1902. 


RELUJION  AND  PHILOSOPHY  99 

Diviiiite.  Quaiid  nous  voiidrons  en  avoir  une  idee,  disons  que 
la  nature  est  Dieu." 

A  characteristic  of  his  later  pantheism  is  that  it  identifies 
God  with  love.  "Great  Spirit,  deepest  love !  Which  rulest  and 
dost  move  all  things  which  live  and  are.*'^*^  Again,  "O  Tower ! 
.  .  .  thou  which  interpenetratest  all  things  and  without 
which  this  glorious  world  were  a  blind  and  formless  chaos, 
Love,  author  of  good,  God,  King,  Father.""^ 

Plato  mounts  up  from  sensuous  love  to  intellecual  love, 
and  so  does  Shelley.  In  the  Defence  of  Poetry,  III,  s.  125, 
he  shows  us  how  another  great  poet  accomplished  this. 
''His  (Dante's)  apotheosis  of  Beatrice  in  Paradise  and  the 
gradations  of  his  own  love  and  her  loveliness,  by  which  as  by 
steps  he  feigns  himself  to  have  ascended  to  the  throne  of  the 
Supreme  cause,  is  the  most  glorious  imagination  of  modern 
poetry."  One  would  be  in  this  highest  stage,  according  to 
Spinoza,  when  one  has  attained  the  intellectual  love  of  God. 
"This  intellectual  love  of  God  is  the  highest  kind  of  virtue 
and  it  not  only  makes  man  free,  but  it  confers  immortality."^** 

Shelly  makes  all  things  love  one  another.   Thus  in  Adonais: 

All  baser  things  pant  with  life's  sacred  thirst ; 

Diffuse  themselves;  and  spend  in  love's  delight. 

The  beauty  and  the  joy  of  their  renewed  might  (st.  19). 

This  harmonizes  with  his  earlier  views  concerning  inanimate 
objects.  We  saw  he  believed  that  ther  all  had  life,  that  they 
were  all  possessed  of  the  "Spirit  of  Nature."  In  Prometheus 
Unbound  he  speak^s  of  "this  true,  fair  world  of  things  a  sea 
reflecting  love."  Love  draws  man  to  man.  It  is  the  sine  qua 
non  of  man's  existence.  His  love  is  founded  in  beauty  as  per- 
ceived by  the  senses.  The  Spirit  of  Beauty  and  the  Spirit  of 
Love  are  one. 

Great  Spirit,  deepest  Love! 

Which  rulest  and  dost  move 
All  things  which  live  and  are 

.     .     .     Who  sittest  in  thy  star  o'er  Ocean's  western  floor 
Spirit  of  Beauty."^ 


"*Ode  to  Naples,  Epode  II.  E. 
^*'Colisseuvi,  III,  6. 

'"Turner:    History  of  Philosophy,  p.  483. 
"°Ode  to  Naples,  Epode  IT,  B. 


100  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY 

We  love  that  which  is  beautiful.  "Love  is  a  going  out  of  one's 
own  nature,  or  an  identification  of  ourselves  with  the  beautiful 
which  exists  in  thought,  action  or  person  not  our  own."^*'^ 
The  beauty  of  the  world  leads  us  step  by  step  to  the  love  of 
pure  Beauty,  Love  itself.  In  the  Symposium,  Diotima  explains 
how  the  love  of  beautiful  objects  leads  on  to  the  conception  of 
perfect  abstract  beauty,  "eternal  unproduced,  indestructible. 
.  .  .  All  other  things  are  beautiful  through  a  participation 
of  it  .  .  .  When  any  one  ascending  from  the  correct  sys- 
tem of  Love  begins  to  contemplate  this  supreme  beauty  he 
already  touches  the  consummation  of  his  labor."^*'  The  earth 
is  not  Beauty,  Love,  Divinity  itself;  it  is  but  the  shadow  of 
God. 

How  glorious  are  thou,  Earth!     And  if  thou  be 
The  shadow  of  some  spirit  lovelier  still."^ 
Again 

The  awful  shadow  of  some  unseen  Power 
Floats  unseen  amongst  us.^*^ 

This  reminds  us  of  platonism.  The  "Spirit"  is  the  Idea,  and 
the  ^'shadow"  is  the  earth.  Plato's  Idea  transcends  the  world 
of  concrete  existence.  The  two  functions  of  the  Idea  are  to 
cause  things  to  be  known  and  to  constitute  their  reality.  It  is 
at  the  same  time  one  and  mauy.^^^  It  stood  out  most  promi- 
nently in  the  mind  of  Plato  as  the  Idea  of  Good  or  Beauty 
by  which  he  meant  God  Himself.  He  says  that  the  shadow  of 
the  power  of  intellectual  Beauty  inspires  us  and  not  intellec- 
tual Beauty  itself.  AVe  could  not  endure  that.  Intellectual 
Beauty  is  God. 

Since  then  Shelley's  Great  Spirit,  Spirit  of  Nature,  Light, 
Beauty,  Love,  resembles  the  "Ideas"  of  Plato  very  closely,  and 
since  these  Ideas  have  been  identified  by  St.  Augustine  and 
other  Christian  platonists  with  the  ''mind  of  God,"  it  is 
doubtful  that  Shelley  was  an  atheist  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term.  His  poetry  at  least  will  tend  to  imbue  us  with  a  realiza- 
tion of  God's  Presence. 


>"I>e/.  of  Poetry,  III,  3. 

'"Forman's  ed.  Prose  WorTts,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  219. 

"^^^Prom.  Unbound,  Act.  II,  sc.  3,  p.  267. 

""Hymn  to  Intellectnal  Beauty. 

""Turner,  p.  102. 


RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY  101 

That  Light  whose  smile  kindles  the  Universe, 
That  Beauty  in  which  all  things  work  and  move, 
That  Benediction  which  the  eclipsing  curse 
Of  birth  can  quench  not,  that  sustaining  Love 
Which  through  the  web  of  being  blindly  wove 
By  man  and  beast  and  earth  and  air  and  sea. 
Burns  bright  or  dim,  as  each  are  mirrors  of 
The  fire  for  which  all  thirst ;  now  beams  on  me. 
Consuming  the  last  clouds  of  cold  mortality.^^^ 

In  his  later  years  Shelley  became  more  and  more  of  an 
idealist.  Towards  the  beginning  of  1812  he  became  acquainted 
with  Berkeley's  writings  at  the  instance  of  Southey.  Ideas, 
according  to  Berkeley,  are  communicated  to  the  mind  through 
the  immediate  operation  of  the  Deity  without  the  intervention 
of  any  actual  matter.  All  our  ideas  are  words  which  God 
speaks  to  us.     Matter  is  only  a  perception  of  the  mind. 

this  Whole 

Of  suns,  and  worlds,  and  men,  and  beasts,  and  flowers. 

With  all  the  silent  or  tempestuous  workings 

By  which  they  have  been,  are,  or  cease  to  be. 

Is  but  a  vision ;  all  that  it  inhabits 

Are  motes  of  a  sick  eye,  bubbles  and  dreams ; 

Thought  is  its  cradle  and  its  grave,  nor  less 

The  future  and  the  past  are  idle  shadows 

Of  thoughts  eternal  flight — they  have  no  being: 

Nought  is  but  that  which  feels  itself  to  be."- 

When  Panthea,  in  Prometheus  TJnhound,  describes  to  Asia  a 
mysterious  dream,  suddenly  Asia  sees  another  shape  pass  be- 
tween her  and  the  ''golden  dew"  which  gleams  through  its 
substance.  '^What  is  it?"  she  asks.  ''It  is  mine  other  dream," 
replies  Panthea.  ''It  disappears,"  exclaims  Asia.  "It  passes 
now  into  my  mind,"  replies  Panthea.  To  Shelley  dreams  are 
as  visible  as  the  dreamers,  and  our  minds  are  simply  a  collec- 
tion of  dreams.  Eeality  is  reduced  to  the  unsubstantiality  of 
a  dream,  and  dreams  are  the  only  reality. 

With  regard  to  his  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  we 
have  the  same  difficulty  and  the  same  solution.  All  that  we 
see  or  know,  he  says,  perishes,  and  although  life  and  thought 
differ  from  evervtbing  else,  still  this  distinction  does  not  att'ord 


^'^Adonais,  st.  54. 
'"Hellas. 


102  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY 

US  any  proof  that  it  survives  that  period  beyond  which  we 
have  no  experience  of  its  existence.  The  quotations,  though, 
which  can  be  twisted  into  an  expression  of  disbelief  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul"^  are  less  numerous  than  those  ex- 
pressing disbelief  in  the  existence  of  God.  His  writings  teem 
with  expressions  of  belief  in  existence  after  death.  ''You  have 
witnessed  one  suspension  of  intellect  in  dreamless  sleep 
.  .  .  you  witness  another  in  death.  From  the  first,  you 
well  know  that  you  cannot  infer  any  diminution  of  intellectual 
force.  How  contrary  then  to  all  analogj-  to  infer  annihilation 
from  death."^"  Again,  "Whatever  may  be  his  true  and  final 
destination  there  is  a  spirit  within  him  at  enmity  with  noth- 
ing and  dissolution."^" 

Plato  claimed  that  the  soul  preexisted  long  before  it  was 
united  to  the  body.  In  its  supercelestial  home  "the  soul  en- 
joyed a  clear  and  unclouded  vision  of  ideas ;  and  that,  although 
it  fell  from  that  happy  state  and  was  steeped  in  the  river  of 
forgetfulness  it  still  retains  an  indistinct  memory  of  those 
heavenly  intuitions  of  the  truth."^^^  Shelley  was  so  impressed 
with  the  truth  of  this  theory  that  he  once  walked  up  to  a 
woman  who  was  carrying  a  child  in  her  arms  and  asked  her 
if  her  child  would  tell  them  anything  about  preexistence.  He 
believed  that  after  death  the  soul  returns  to  Plato's  world  of 
Ideas  whence  it  came. 

Whilst  burning  through  the  inmost  veil  of  heaven 

The  soul  of  Adonais,  like  a  star 

Beacons  from  the  abode  where  the  eternal  are.^^^ 
As  to  the  nature  of  the  soul  his  early  views  reflect  the  influence 
of  Dr.  G.  Aberthney,  who  believed  in  a  kind  of  universal 
animism.  On  January  6,  1811,  he  writes  to  Hogg :  "I  think  we 
may  not  inaptly  define  soul  as  the  most  supreme,  superior 
and  distinguished  abstract  appendage  to  the  nature  of  any- 
thing." Again,  "I  conceive  (and  as  is  certainly  capable  of 
demonstration)  that  nothing  can  be  annihilated,  but  that 
everything  appertaining  to  nature,  consisting  of  constituent 

»"Cf.  Shelley's  Essay  on  a  Future  State. 
"'Letter  to  Eliz.  Hitchener,  June  25,  1811. 
^"Essay  on  Life. 

""Turner:  History  of  Philosophy,  p.  110. 
"^Adonais,  st.  55. 


RELIGION   AND  PHILOSOPHY  103 

parts  infinitely'  divisible,  is  in  a  continual  change,  then  do  1 
suppose — and  I  think  I  have  a  riglit  to  draw  this  inference — 
that  neither  will  soul  perish. "^'^^^ 

In  Queen  Mab  we  find  Shelley  believing  in  the  doctrine  of 
necessity.  There  he  denies  the  freedom  of  the  will.  Later  on 
he  exempted  the  will  from  the  law  of  necessity,  but  not  the 
intelligence  or  reason  of  man.  His  views  on  this  subject  were 
derived  principally  from  Godwin.  ''Every  human  being,"  says 
Godwin,  "is  irresistably  impelled  to  act  precisely  as  he  does 
act.  In  the  eternity  which  preceded  his  birth  a  chain  of  causes 
was  generated,  which,  operating  under  the  name  of  motives, 
make  it  impossible  that  any  thought  of  his  mind  and  any 
action  of  his  life  should  be  otherwise  than  it  is."^^" 

The  actions  of  every  human  being  are  determined  by  the 
dictates  of  reason;  and,  like  the  operations  of  nature,  are 
subject  to  the  law  of  necessity.  This  idea  of  necessity  is  ob- 
tained from  our  experience  of  the  uniformity  of  the  phenomena 
of  nature.  Similar  causes  invariably  produce  the  same  effect. 
In  the  material  world  an  immense  chain  of  causes  and  effects 
appears,  the  connection  between  which  we  cannot  understand. 
The  same  thing  is  true  of  the  moral  world.  There,  motive  is 
to  voluntary  action  what  cause  is  to  effect  in  the  physical 
order.  A  man  cannot  resist  the  strongest  motive  any  more 
than  a  stone  left  unsuspended  can  remain  in  the  air.  Will  is 
simply  an  act  of  the  judgment  determined  by  logical  impres- 
sions. The  murderer  is  no  more  responsible  for  his  deed  than 
the  knife  with  which  the  crime  was  committed.  Both  were  set 
in  motion  from  without;  the  knife,  by  material  impulse;  the 
man,  by  inducement  and  persuasion.  To  hate  a  murderer, 
then,  is  as  unreasonable  as  to  hate  his  weapon.  Educate  him, 
but  do  not  punish.    In  the  material  world 

No  atom  of  this  turbulence  fulfills 

A  vague  and  uunecessitated  chance. 
Or  acts  but  as  it  must  and  ought  to  act.^'"'° 

In  the  same  way 

Not  a  thought,  a  will,  an  act. 
No  working  of  tlie  tyrant's  moody  mind, 

^"June  20,  1811. 

^"Political  Justice.  Book  VI.  11.  . 
^""Quecn  Mab,  Canto  VI,  p.  24. 


104  RELIGION    AND   PHILOSOPHY 

Nor  one  misgiving  of  the  slaves  who  boast 
Their  servitude,  to  hide  the  shame  they  feel, 
Nor  the  events  enchaining  every  will, 
That  from  the  depths  of  unrecorded  time 
Have  drawn  all-influencing  virtue,  pass 
Unrecognized,  or  unforeseen  by  thee. 
Soul  of  the  Universe  !^''^ 

In  his  notes  to  Queen  Mob,  Shelley  admits  that  the  doctrine 
of  necessity  tends  to  introduce  a  great  change  into  the  estab- 
lished notions  of  morality,  and  utterly  to  destroy  Keligion. 
It  teaches  that  no  event  could  happen  but  as  it  did  happen; 
and  that  if  God  is  the  author  of  good  He  is  also  the  author 
of  evil. 

Shelley  soon  broke  away  from  the  teaching  of  Godwin  and 
Spinoza  with  regard  to  the  freedom  of  the  will.  He  main- 
tained that  the  will  is  unrestrainedly  free  and  that  man  is  his 
own  master.  Thus,  ''Man  whose  wiU  has  power  when  all  be- 
side is  gone"  {The  Revolt,  VIII,  16).  ''Such  intent  as  reno- 
vates the  world  a  will  omnipotent"  (Ibid.,  II,  41).  "Who  if 
ye  dared  might  not  aspire  less  than  ye  conceive  of  power" 
(Ibid.,  XI,  16). 

Man  can  obtain  freedom  if  he  really  desires  it.  Godwin  held 
that  freedom  from  external  restraints  leads  to  freedom  of  the 
mind,  whereas  Shelley  sees  in  external  political  freedom  the 
blossoming  forth  of  already  obtained  freedom  of  the  soul. 
The  interior  freedom  is  obtained  through  self-abnegation  and 
the  determination  of  the  will.  Mrs.  Shelley  says  in  the  intro- 
duction to  Prometheus  TJnl)oimd  that  Shelley  believed  man- 
kind had  only  to  will  that  there  should  be  no  evil  and  there 
would  be  none.  Evil  is  not  something  inherent  in  creation, 
but  an  accident  that  may  be  expelled.  "But  we  are  taught," 
writes  Shelley,  "by  the  doctrine  of  necessity,  that  there  is 
neither  good  nor  evil  in  the  universe,  otherwise  than  as  the 
events  to  which  we  apply  these  epithets  have  relation  to  our 
own  peculiar  mode  of  being."^«- 

This  view  is  very  similar  to  that  of  Drummond.  He  held  that 
order  and  disorder  have  no  place  but  in  our  own  imagination, 
and  are  the  modes  in  which  we  survey  tlie  eternal  and  necessary 

"•Ibid. 

"'Notes  to  Otteen  Jlfa&. 


RELIGION    ANIt    rilll.OSOI'HY  105 

series  of  things.  Ideas  of  right  and  wrong  depend  upon  the 
circumstances  in  which  people  are  placed.  They  vary  so  much 
that  we  do  not  find  the  standard  of  morality  to  be  precisely 
the  same  in  any  two  countries  of  the  world.  Good  and  evil 
are  modes  of  thinking;  and  what  appears  good  to  one  person 
may  appear  bad  to  another,  and  neither  good  nor  bad  to  a 
third.  This  is  Spinoza's  doctrine:  "Bonum  et  malum  quod 
attinet,  nihil  etiain  positivum  in  rebus,  in  se  scilicet  con- 
sideratis,  indicant,  nee  aliud  sunt  praeter  cogitandi  modos, 
seu  motiones,  quas  forma mus  ex  eo,  quod  res  ad  invicem  com- 
paramus  nam  una  eademque  res  potest  eodem  tempore  bona 
et  mala,  et  etiam  indiffereus  esse."    Ethics,  IV. 

Shelley  has  two  versions  of  the  origin  of  good  and  evil.  The 
first  is  mauichean  and  represents  them  as  twin  genii  of  bal- 
anced power  and  opposite  tendencies  ruling  the  world.  "This 
much  is  certain :  that  Jesus  Christ  represents  God  as  the  foun- 
tain of  all  goodness,  the  eternal  enemy  of  pain  and  evil.  .  .  . 
According  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  according  to  the  indisputable 
facts  of  the  case,  some  evil  spirit  has  dominion  in  this  imper- 
fect world."^''^  Good  is  represented  by  the  morning  star  and 
evil  by  a  comet.  According  to  the  second  version,  which  is 
Shelley's  own  view,  evil  has  not  the  same  power  that  good  has, 
and  came  later  into  the  world.  Evil  is  strong  because  man 
permits  it  to  exist,  and  must  disappear  as  soon  as  man  wills 
this.  Since  it  could  be  entirely  eliminated,  it  is  not  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  world. 

Man  is  naturally  good.  His  vices  are  the  result  of  bad  edu- 
cation. They  are  nothing  but  errors  of  judgment.  Let  truth 
prevail;  educate  men  properly,  and  then  vice  will  entirely 
disappear.     Shelley  also  writes  : 

Let  priest-led  slaves  cease  to  proclaim  that  man 
Inherits  vice  and  misery,  when  force 
And  falsehood  hang  even  over  the  cradled  babe 
Stifling  with  rudest  grasp  all  natural  good. 

Godwin  thinks  that  the  influence  of  the  emotions  and  pas- 
sions has  been  overestimated.  It  is  not  true  that  they  can 
force  one  to  act  in  opposition  to  the  dictates  of  one's  reason. 
They  maintain  their  lio1d  on  men  but  by  the  ornaments  with 


"Shelley  Memorials,  Essay  on  Christianity,  p.  283. 


106  RKLIGIOX    AND    PHILOSOPHY 

which  they  are  decked  out;  aud  these  are  the  things  which 
compel  a  man  to  yield.  Reduce  sensual  acts  to  their  true 
nakedness  and  they  would  be  despised.  Whatever  power  the 
passions  have  to  incline  men  to  act  will,  in  future,  be  offset 
by  consideration  of  justice  and  self-interest.  ^lany  have  over- 
come the  influence  of  pain  and  pleasure  in  the  past  by  the 
energies  of  intellectual  resolution,  and  what  these  accom- 
plished can  be  done  by  all.  Reason  and  truth,  then,  are  suffi- 
cient to  change  the  whole  complexion  of  society.  They  will 
ultimately  prevail;  and  then  all  will  be  wise  and  good.  The 
following  from  Shelley  is  an  eclio  of  this. 

And  when  reason's  voice 
Loud  as  the  voice  of  nature  shall  have  waked 
The  nations;  and  mankind  perceive  that  vice 
Is  discord,  war,  and  misery ;  that  virtue 
Is  peace  and  happiness  and  harmony 

XX 

How  sweet  a  scene  will  earth  become  I 
Of  purest  spirits  a  pure  dwelling-place, 
Sj'mphonious  with  the  planetary  spheres. 

Godwin  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  eventually  all  sickness 
would  disappear;  and  even  in  this  Shelley  follows  his  master. 
Shelley  finds  this  view  of  evil  in  the  teaching  of  Christ. 
"According  to  Jesus  Christ,"  he  writes,  ''some  evil  spirit  has 
dominion  in  this  imperfect  world.  But  there  will  come  a  time 
when  the  human  mind  shall  be  visited  exclusively  by  the  in- 
fluence of  the  benignant  power."^"^ 

All  the  philosophists  who  influenced  Shelley  agreed  in  this 
that  virtue  leads  to  happiness.  The  purpose  of  virtuous  con- 
duct, says  Godwin,  "is  the  production  of  happiness."'  So  with 
Shelley  "virtue  is  peace,  and  happiness,  and  harmony."  Vir- 
tue, says  Godwin,  is  the  offspring  of  the  understanding;  and 
vice  is  alwaj's  the  result  of  narrow  views.  "Selfishness,"  writes 
Shelley,  "is  the  offspring  of  ignorance  and  mistake;  .  .  . 
disinterested  benevolence  is  the  product  of  a  cultivated  imagi- 
nation, and  has  an  intimate  connection  with  all  the  arts  which 

"'Essay  on  Christianity. 


RELIGION"    AND    I'HILOSOPHY  107 

add  ornament  or  dignity  or  power,  or  stability  to  tlie  social 
state  of  rnan.""^ 

Shelley  does  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  hell.  He  thinks 
that  this  doctrine  is  incompatible  with  the  goodness  of  God. 
"Love  yonr  enemies,  bless  those  who  curse  yon,  that  ye  may 
be  the  sons  of  your  Heavenly  Father,  Who  makes  the  sun  to 
shine  on  the  good  and  the  evil,  and  the  rain  to  fall  on  the  just 
and  unjust."  How  monstrous  a  calumny  have  not  impostors 
dared  to  advance  against  the  mild  and  gentle  author  of  this 
just  sentiment,  and  against  the  whole  tenor  of  his  doctrines 
and  his  life  overflowing  with  benevolence  and  forbearance  and 
compassion."^*"'  God,  he  says,  would  only  be  gratifying  his 
revenge  under  pretence  of  satisfying  justice  were  he  to  inflict 
pain  upon  another  for  no  better  reason  than  that  he  de- 
served it. 


"Speculations  on  Morals,  Vol.  II,  prose  works,  p.  260. 
'^Shelley  Memorials.     Essay  on  Christianity,  p.  279. 


CHAPTER  V 

RADICALISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    POETRY 

A  poet  is  the  product  of  his  time.  Shelley  observes  that 
there  is  a  resemblance,  which  does  not  depend  on  their  own 
will,  between  the  writers  of  any  particular  age.  They  are  all 
subjected  to  a  common  influence  ^'which  arises  out  of  a  com- 
bination of  circumstances  belonging  to  the  time  in  which  they 
live,  though  each  is  in  a  degree  the  author  of  the  very  influence 
by  which  his  being  is  thus  pervaded."  Hence  it  is  that  the 
works  of  any  poet  cannot  be  thoroughly  appreciated  unless 
the  spirit  that  pervaded  the  life  of  the  period  be  understood. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  poetry  of  Shelley.  It  embodies 
the  aspirations  and  ideals  of  the  philosophers  of  his  time.  Its 
themes  are  liberty,  justice  and  revolt.  On  every  side  are  heard 
protests  against  conventionality,  against  government,  and 
against  religion.  The  philosophers  of  the  French  Revolution 
are  hailed  as  the  saviors  of  society"  and  their  theories  put  forth 
as  a  panacea  for  all  human  ills.  Shelley  is  the  high  water 
mark  of  the  waves  of  revolt  which  threatened  to  inundate  the 
country.  A  brief  investigation,  then,  of  the  poetical  atmos- 
phere of  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  will  help  us  in  our 
study  of  the  sources  of  his  radicalism. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  contemporar}^  literature  had 
some  influence  on  his  sensitive  nature.  "The  writings  of  the 
future  laureate  (Southey)  as  likewise  of  Wordsworth  and 
Coleridge,  and  Landor's  Gehir  were  among  those  for  which 
Shelley  in  early  youth  had  a  particular  predilection. "^'^^  Since 
the  influence  of  Southey  soon  began  to  decline  on  account  of 
his  fulsome  praise  of  George  III,  we  shall  confine  our  attention 
to  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge.  "One  word  in  candor,"  Shelley 
writes,  "on  the  manner  in  which  the  study  of  contemporary 
writing  may  have  modified  my  composition.  I  am  intimately 
persuaded  that  the  peculiar  stjie  of  intensive  and  comprehen- 
sive imagery  in  poetry  which  distinguishes  modern  writers 
has  not  been  as  a  general  y)ower  the  i)roduct  of  the  imitation 


'"W.  M.  Rossetti:     Memoir  of  HhcUey,  p.  33. 
108 


RADICALISM  IN  CONTEMPORARY  I'OBTRY  10!) 

of  any  particular  one.  It  is  impossible  that  any  one  contem- 
porary with  such  writers  ( VVordsworth  and  Coleridge  were 
specified  at  first)  as  stand  in  the  front  ranks  of  literature  of 
the  present  day  can  conscientiously  assure  themselves  or 
others  that  their  language  and  tone  of  thought  may  not  have 
been  modified  by  the  study  of  the  productions  of  these  extra- 
ordinary intellects."^*'® 

Radicalism,  we  said,  was  the  characteristic  of  this  period 
and  this  extended  both  to  the  form  and  the  matter  of  poetry. 
Byron  characterizes  one  eminent  poet  as  "the  mild  apostate 
from  poetic  rule.""^ 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  conserva- 
tism and  classicism  were  in  the  ascendant.  After  the  Revo- 
lution of  1688  everything  medieval  and  Catholic  was  looked 
upon  with  suspicion.  Old  customs  and  festivities  were  allowed 
to  fall  into  disuse.  Compared  with  the  past  it  was  a  material 
age.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century  agriculture  and  com- 
merce flourished  and  with  this  advance  in  material  prosperity 
came  the  decline  of  romanticism.  "Correctness"  in  form  and 
thought  is  the  guiding  light  of  prince  and  peasant,  of  poet  and 
philosopher.  Imagination  is  concerned  almost  entirely  with 
society  and  fine  manners.  Pope's  themes  are  beaux  and  belles, 
pomatum,  billets-doux,  and  patches.  He  preferred  the  artificial 
to  the  natural.  Form,  imitation  of  the  classics,  is  to  him 
and  the  men  of  that  period,  the  all  important  matter  in  litera- 
ture.   In  his  Essay  on  Criticism  he  tells  us  again  and  again 

Learn  hence  for  ancient  rules  a  just  esteem 
To  copy  nature  is  to  copy  them. 

'*To  his  immediate  successors  Pope  was  the  grand  exemplar 
of  what  a  poet  should  be,"^^°  but  unfortunately  he  was  followed 
by  a  horde  of  imitators  whose  only  claim  on  tlie  muse  of  poetry 
was  ability  to  turn  out  heroic  couplets.  As  a  consequence 
poetiy  became  a  cold,  lifeless  aft'air,  devoid  of  imagination  and 
"divorced  from  living  nature  and  the  warm  spontaneity  of  the 
heart.""^ 
A  reaction  against  this  pseudo-classicism    was    inevitable. 

'"'Shelley's  notebook.    Printed  for  W.  K.  Bixby,  St.  Louis,  1911. 

"'English  Bards  and  Scotch  Revieivers. 

""P.  J.  Lennox  in  the  Catholic  Encylopedia,  Vol.  XIL 

••'T.  Arnold;  Manual  of  English  Literature,  p.  304. 


110  RADICALISM   IN  CONTEMPORARY   POETRY 

That  small  but  constantly  flowing  stream  of  romanticism 
which  is  found  in  the  works  of  Thomson,  Blake,  Warton  and 
Gray,  increased  in  size  until  it  broke  loose  in  the  Lyrical 
Ballads  of  1798.  This  was  the  joint  work  of  Coleridge  and 
Wordsworth.  The  two  poets  met  for  the  first  time  in  1796. 
Coleridge  was  then  24  years  of  age  and  Wordsworth  but  two 
years  his  senior.  In  July,  1797,  Wordsworth  and  his  sister 
moved  to  Alfoxden,  in  Somersetshire,  that  they  might  be  near 
Coleridge,  who  was  living  with  his  wife  at  Nether-Stowey. 
They  were,  as  Coleridge  has  said  somewhere,  three  people  but 
one  soul.  A  good  description  of  the  relationship  between  them 
is  given  in  Dorothy  Wordsworth's  Alfoxden  Journal,  and  in 
Coleridge's  The  Nightingale;  a  conversation  poem.  Their 
most  frequent  topic  of  conversation  was  ''the  power  of  exciting 
the  sympathy  of  the  reader  by  a  faithful  adherence  to  the 
truth  of  nature,  and  the  power  of  giving  the  interest  of  novelty 
by  the  modifying  colors  of  imagination."^^-  From  these  con- 
versations originated  the  plan  of  the  Lyrical  Ballads.  The 
work  was  divided  into  two  parts.  Coleridge  was  to  direct  his 
attention  to  romantic  and  supernatural  characters  and  to 
enshroud  these  with  a  human  interest  and  a  semblance  of 
truth  sufiScient  to  engage  our  interest  and  attention.  Words- 
worth, on  the  other  hand,  was  to  produce  the  same  effect  by 
giving  the  charm  of  novelty  to  objects  chosen  from  ordinary 
life.  It  seemed  to  them  that  the  beauty  of  a  landscape  often 
depended  on  the  accidents  of  light  and  shade;  that  moonlight 
or  sunset  sometimes  transformed  an  uninviting  scene  into  one 
of  entrancing  beauty ;  and  so  they  believed  that  they  could  dif- 
fuse the  glow  of  their  imagination  over  any  object  and  make 
it  attractive.  As  might  be  expected  the  publication  of  the 
Ballads  did  not  meet  with  success.  The  change  from  the 
stereotyped  verse  of  the  age  to  these  carelessly  formed  effusions 
was  too  much  for  the  critics.  Some  scoffed  at  them;  others 
thought  they  were  being  hoaxed.  The  subjects  dealt  with  in 
these  poems  were  long  considered  as  unfit  for  poetry;  and  of 
course  the  conservative  felt  it  his  bouuden  duty  to  protest 
against  the  innovation.    In  the  second  edition  of  the  Ballads, 


'"Coleridge:    Biographia  Literaria,  Ch.  XIV. 


RADICALISM    IX  COXTKMrORARY   POETRY  111 

which  was  entirely  Wordsworth's  own  work,  an  attempt  is 
made  to  justify  this  radical  departure  from  the  beaten  path.  A 
poet,  he  explains,  is  a  genius,  and  should  not  be  hampered  by 
any  conventions  of  art  or  traditions  of  society.  His  imagina- 
tion is  the  purifying  fire  which  transmutes  the  rough  ore  of  the 
commonplace  into  the  choice  gold  of  literature.  ''Good  poetry," 
he  writes,  '*is  the  spontaneous  overflow  of  powerful  feelings.'' 
"He  (the  poet)  is  a  man  speaking  to  men;  a  man,  it  is  true, 
endowed  with  more  lively  sensibility,  more  enthusiasm  and 
tenderness,  who  has  a  greater  knowledge  of  human  nature  and 
a  more  comprehensive  soul,  than  are  supposed  to  be  common 
among  mankind;  a  man  pleased  with  his  own  passions  and 
volitions,  and  who  rejoices  more  than  other  men  in  the  spirit 
of  life  that  is  in  him;  delighting  to  contemplate  similar  voli- 
tions and  passions  as  manifested  in  the  goings  of  the  universe, 
and  habitually  impelled  to  create  them  where  he  does  not  find 
them."^"  This  is  a  good  picture  of  Shelley.  "With  a  spiritual 
gaze  turned  first  inward,  on  his  own  passions  and  volitions, 
and  then  turned  outward  upon  the  universe,  Shelley  looked  in 
vain  for  external  objects  answering  to  the  forms  generated  by 
his  dazzling  imagination."^^* 

Meter  and  poetic  diction,  Wordsworth  says,  are  something 
altogether  accidental  to  poetry,  and  consequently  there  is  no 
essential  difference  between  the  language  of  poetry  and  that 
of  prose.  "The  distinction,"  Shelley  writes,  "between  poets 
and  prose  writers  is  a  vulgar  error.  Plato  was  essentially  a 
poet.""'  Wordsworth  contends,  too,  that  the  proper  language 
of  poetry  is  the  ordinary  language  of  the  rustic.  The  excellence 
of  poetry  depends  not  so  much  on  the  dignity  of  the  words  used 
as  on  their  capacity  to  arouse  emotions.  "The  language  of 
poets,"  Shelley  writes,  "is  vitally  metaphorical;  that  is,  it 
marks  the  before-unapprehended  relations  of  things  and  per- 
petuates their  apprehension;  until  words  which  represent 
them,  become,  through  time,  signs  for  portions  or  classes  of 
thought  instead  of  pictures  of  integral  thoughts.  .  .  .    Every 


"'Preface  to  Lyrical  Ballads. 
'"Conrthope,  Vol.,  VI,  p.  314. 
'"Shelley's  Defence  of  Poetry,  p.  9. 


112  RADICALISM    IN  CONTEMPORARY  POETRY 

original  language  near  to  its  source  is  in  itself  the  chaos  of  a 
cyclic  poem."^" 

Not  only  Shelley's  jirinciples  as  regards  "the  use  of  lan- 
guage" but  also  his  "tone  of  thought"  was  influenced  by 
Wordsworth.  Coleridge  and  Wordsworth  removed  the  sphere 
of  poetry  from  social  action  to  philosophical  reflection;  they 
exchanged  the  ancient  method,  consisting  in  the  ideal  imita- 
tion of  external  objects,  for  an  introspective  analysis  of  the 
impressions  of  the  individual  mind.^^^  Many  of  Wordsworth's 
poems  are  records  of  the  moods  of  his  own  soul,  and  of  phases 
of  his  life;  so  also  are  Shelley's  A  brief  examination  of  some 
of  Wordsworth's  works  will  serve  to  make  this  clear. 

Wordsworth  planned  an  epic  poem,  The  Recluse,  of  which 
The  Prelude,  or  introduction,  and  The  Excursion  are  the  only 
parts  extant.  In  these  two  poems  we  can  trace  out  the  history 
of  his  radicalism.  The  Prelude  is  his  autobiography;  and  The 
Excursion  supplements  what  is  lacking  to  a  thorough  revela- 
tion of  the  workings  of  his  mind.  He  begins  The  Prelude  by 
telling  about  his  childhood  and  schooltime,  his  residence  at 
Cambridge,  vacation  and  love  for  books.  He  then  treats  of 
his  first  trip  to  the  Continent  and  his  residence  in  London. 
Book  IX  is  concerned  with  his  second  visit  to  France  in  1791. 
While  there  he  mixed  up  with  all  classes 

.  .  .  and  thus  ere  long 
Became  a  patriot ;  and  my  heart  was  all 
Given  to  the  people,  and  my  love  was  theirs."^^* 

It  was  natural  for  him  to  do  so,  because  he  lived  from  boyhood 
among  those  whose  claims  on  one's  respect  did  not  rest  on 
accidents  of  wealth  or  blood.  He  describes  his  friend  General 
Beaupis,  who  inoculated  him  with  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of 
the  Revolution.  In  The  Revolt  of  Islam  Shelley  describes  Dr. 
Lind,  who  taught  him  to  curse  the  king.  Hatred  of  absolute 
rule,  where  the  will  of  one  is  law  for  all,  was  becoming 
stronger   in   Wordsworth   every   day.     After   the   September 


""Shelley's  Defence  of  Poetry,  p.  5. 
"'Courthope:  History  of  Poetry,  Vol.  VI,  p.  192. 
^'^Riversifle  Edition,  p.  217. 


RADICALISM    IN   CONTEMTORARY   POETRY  113 

massacres  and  the  imprisonment  of  the  king  he  returned  to 

Paris. 

And  ranged  with  ardor  heretofore  unfelt 
The  spacious  city.^^^ 

He  was  about  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  Revolutionists  when  he 
was  forced  to  return  to  England.  The  excesses  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, however,  deprived  him  of  some  of  the  hopes  that  he 
placed  in  it.  At  that  time  his  "day  thoughts"  were  most 
melancholy.  When  news  came  of  the  fall  of  Robespierre  his 
hopes  began  to  revive.  The  earth  will  now  march  firmly  to- 
wards righteousness  and  peace. 

Oh!  pleasant  exercise  of  hope  and  joy! 

For  mighty  were  the  auxiliars  which  then  stood 

Upon  our  side,  us  who  were  strong  in  love; 

Bliss  was  it  in  that  dawn  to  be  alive, 

But  to  be  young  was  very  Heaven.^®*' 

In  Canto  V  of  The  Revolt  of  Islam  Shelley  describes  how 
oppressors  and  oppressed  are  persuaded  to  forego  revenge. 
Love  has  conquered  and  a  new  era  of  peace  and  happiness  is 
about  to  begin. 

To  hear,  to  see,  to  live,  was  on  that  morn 
Lethean  joy. 

Although  Shelley  does  not  dwell  on  details  as  Wordsworth 
does,  still  there  is  a  striking  similarity  between  the  spirit  of 
parts  of  The  Excursion  and  that  of  many  of  Shelley's  poems. 
An  extract  from  The  Revolt  of  Islam  will  help  to  verify  this. 

Thoughts  of  great  deeds  were  mine,  dear  friend,  when  first 

The  clouds  that  wrapt  me  from  this  world  did  pass. 

I  do  remember  well  the  hour  which  burst 

My  spirit's  sleep.     A  fresh  May-dawn  it  was. 

When  I  walked  forth  upon  the  glittering  grass. 

And  wept,  I  know  not  why;  until  there  rose 

From  the  near  schoolroom  voices  that,  alas! 

Were  but  one  echo  from  a  world  of  woes, 

The  harsh  and  grating  strife  of  tyrants  and  of  foes. 


"•Ibid.,  p.  239. 

"•Ibid.,  Book  XI,  p.  265. 


114  RADICALISM    IN   COXTEMPORARY   POETRY 

And  then  I  clasped  my  hands  and  looked  around — 
But  none  was  near  to  mock  my  streaming  eyes, 
Which  poured  their  drops  upon  the  sunny  ground — 
So  without  shame  I  spoke:  ''I  will  be  wise, 
And  just,  and  free,  and  mild,  if  in  me  lies 
Such  power,  for  I  grow  weary  to  behold 
The  selfish  and  the  strong  still  tyrannize 
Without  reproach  or  check. 

Wordsworth's  joy,  however,  was  short-lived  .  In  1796  Na- 
poleon started  on  a  campaign  of  conquest  and  this  completely 
shattered  Wordsworth's  faith  in  the  Eevolution.  When  he  saw 
that  the  French  were  changing  a  war  of  self-defense  into  one 
of  subjugation,  losing  sight  of  all  which  they  themselves  had 
struggled  for,  he  became  "vexed  with  anger  and  sore  with 
disappointment."  About  the  year  1793  he  fell  under  the 
influence  of  Godwin,  and  it  is  to  his  doctrines  that  he  now 
turned  for  solace.  Godwin,  as  we  have  seen,  makes  reason  the 
sole  guide  and  rule  of  conduct.  Custom,  law,  and  every  kind 
of  authority  are  inimical  to  the  well-being  of  humanity. 
Wordsworth  then  at  this  time  began  dragging  all  precepts, 
creeds,  etc.,  "like  culprits  to  the  bar  of  reason,  now  believing, 
now  disbelieving," 

till,  demanding  formal  proof 

And  seeking  it  in  everything,  I  lost 

All  feeling  of  conviction,  and,  in  fine, 

Sick,  wearied  out  with  contrarieties, 

Yielded  up  all  moral  questions  in  despair.^^^ 

He  had  sounded  radicalism  to  its  lowest  depths  and  found  it 
wanting. 

I  drooped 
Deeming  our  blessed  reason  of  the  least  use 
Where  wanted  most. 

In  The  Prelude  Wordsworth  records  how  he  had  in  youth 
moments  of  supreme  inspiration,  and  had  taken  vows  binding 
himself  to  the  service  of  the  spirit  he  felt  in  nature. 

To  the  brim 
My  heart  was  full,  I  made  no  vows  but  vows 
Were  made  for  me;  bond  unknown  to  me 
Was  given,  that  I  should  be,  else  sinning  greatly 
A  dedicated  spirit. 

'"The  Prelude.  Book  XI,  p.  272. 


RADICALISM    IN   CONTKMrORARY    rOETRY  11/) 

So  with  Shelley  in  Alastor: 

Mother  of  this  unfathomable  world! 
Favor  my  solemn  song!  for  I  have  loved 
Thee  ever  and  thee  only. 

The  sense  of  life  and  the  sense  of  mystery  are  seen  in  Alastor 
and  these  are  due  to  the  influence  of  Wordsworth. 

During  all  this  time  Wordsworth  wrote  very  little  poetry 
embodying  his  radical  sentiments.  The  only  important  work 
of  this  kind  which  appeared  is  his  drama,  The  Borderers. 
Even  this  cannot  be  called  a  radical  word  as  it  marks  his  re- 
jection of  Godwinism.  Marmaduke  loves  Idonea,  Herbert's 
daughter,  and  is  told  that  she  is  about  to  be  sacrificed  by  her 
father  to  the  lust  of  a  neighboring  noble.  Oswald,  the 
Godwinian,  persuades  Marmaduke,  by  dint  of  reasoning,  to 
disregard  the  musty  command  of  tyrants,  to  obey  the  only  law 
"that  sense  submits  to  recognize,"  and  kill  blind  Herbert. 
This  Marmaduke  does,  but  later  on  finds  out  his  mistake  and 
tells  Idonea  towards  the  end  that 

Proof  after  proof  was  pressed  upon  me;  guilt 
Made  evident,  as  seemed,  by  blacker  guilt. 
Whose  impious  folds  enwrapped  even  thee.^^^ 

He  realizes  that  he  has  committed  a  crime ;  that  it  is  the  height 
of  folly  to  ignore  instinct  and  tradition,  and  so  he  wanders 
over  waste  and  wild 

till  anger  is   appeased 
In  heaven,  and  mercy  gives  me  leave  to  die. 

Although  the  radicalism  of  his  early  years  does  not  reveal 
itself  to  any  great  extent  in  his  poetry  of  that  time,  still  it  is 
responsible  for  his  largest  work.  The  Excursion.  This  poem 
is  an  attempt  to  reconstruct  a  new  theory  of  life  out  of  the 
ruins  of  the  French  Revolution.  According  to  Wordsworth, 
the  poet  is  a  teacher.  "I  wish,"  he  says,  "to  be  considered  as 
a  teacher  or  as  nothing."  Shelley  says  that  "poets  are  the 
unacknowleged  legislators  of  the  world."^*^  His  Revolt  of 
Islam  and  other  poems  attempt  to  inculcate  "a  liberal  and 
comprehensive    morality."      What    particularly    distinguishes 


'"Act.  V,  scene  3. 
'"Essay  on  Poetry. 


116  RADICALISM    IN    CONTEMTORARY    POETRY 

Wordsworth  and  Shelley  from  preceding  poets  is  that  they 
moralize  and  draw  lessons  from  their  own  experiences.  The 
two  principal  characters  in  The  Excursion — the  Solitary  and 
the  Wanderer — represent  Wordsworth  the  radical  and  Words- 
worth the  conservative.  The  Wanderer,  who  has  had  a  long 
experience  of  men  and  things,  derives  from  nature  moral 
reflections  of  various  kinds.  In  his  walks  he  meets  the 
Solitary,  a  gloomy,  morose  sceptic.  This  man  tells  about  his 
desire  to  find  peace  and  contentment;  his  delight  in  nature; 
and  the  happiness  of  his  wedded  life.  The  death  of  his  wife 
and  children  filled  him  with  despair.  He  then  begins  to  ques- 
tion the  ways  of  God  to  men  and  exclaims 

Then  my  soul 
Turned  inward — to  examine  of  what  stuff 
Times  fetters  are  composed ;  and  life  was  put 
To  inquisition,  long  and  profitless  !^^* 

He  is  aroused  from  these  abstractions  by  the  report  that  the 
dread  Bastile  has  fallen ;  and  from  the  wreck  he  sees  a  golden 
palace  rise 

The  appointed  seat  of  equitable  law 

The  mild  paternal  sway 

.  .  .  from  the  blind  mist  issuing 

I  beheld 
Glory,  beyond  all  glory  ever  seen. 

In  Queen  Mob  Shelley  has  a  somewhat  similar  phrase: 

Hope  was  seen  beaming  through  the  mists  of  fear. 

He  thus  becomes  interested  once  more  in  life;  and  joins  in  the 
chorus  of  Liberty  singing  in  every  grove. 

War  shall  cease 
Did  ye  not  hear  that  conquest  is  abjured  ? 
Bring  garlands,  bring  forth  choicest  flowers,  to  deck 
The  tree  of  Liberty.^^^ 

Society  then  became  his  bride  and  *'airy  hopes"  his  children. 
Although  no  Gallic  blood  flows  in  his  veins,  still  not  less  tha.i 
Gallic  zeal  burns  among  ''the  sapless  twigs  of  his  exhausted 
heart."  He  is  in  entire  sympathy  with  the  plans  and  aspira- 
tions of  the  revolutionists,  and  he  feels  that  a   progeny  of 

^'*The  Excursion.  Book  ITI,  p.  107. 
""Ibid.,  p.  108. 


RADICALISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    POETRY  117 

golden  years  is  about  to  descend  and  bless  mankind.  All  the 
hopes  of  the  Solitary,  though,  are  blasted.  He  is  disgusted 
with  the  way  in  which  the  revolution  is  progressing  and  sets 
sail  for  America,  where  he  expects  to  find  freedom  from  the 
restraints  of  tyranny.  Shelley  writes  about  America  as 
follows : 

There  is  a  people  mighty  in  its  youth, 

A  land  beyond  the  oceans  of  the  west 

Where,  though  with  rudest  rites,  F'reedom  and  Truth 

Are  worshipped.^*'" 

The  Solitary's  expectations  are  not  fultilled,  and  so  he  returns, 
despondent,  to  his  own  country.  He  is  in  this  frame  of  mind 
when  he  meets  the  Wanderer,  who  tells  him  that  the  only  ade- 
quate support  for  the  calamities  of  life  is  belief  in  Providence. 
Victory,  the  Wanderer  says,  is  sure  if  we  strive  to  yield  entire 
submission  to  the  law  of  conscience.  He  compares  the  force 
of  gravity,  which  constrains  the  stars  in  their  motions,  to  the 
principle  of  duty  in  the  life  of  man.  In  Act  IV  of  Prometheus 
Utibound  Shelley  compares  the  force  of  gravity  to  the  impulse 
of  love.  There  is  no  cause  for  despair,  and  '^the  loss  of  con- 
fidence in  social  man."  The  beginning  of  the  revolution  had 
raised  man's  hopes  unwarrantably  high.  As  there  was  no 
cause  then  for  such  exalted  confidence,  so  there  is  none  now  for 
fixed  despair. 

The  two  extremes  are  equally  disowned 

By  reason. 
One  should  have  patience  and  courage.  It  is  folly  to  expect 
the  accomplishment  in  one  day  of  "what  all  the  slowly  moving 
years  of  time  have  left  undone.''  In  the  preface  to  The  Revolt 
of  Islam  Shelley  writes:  "But  such  a  degree  of  unmingled 
good  was  expected  (from  the  revolution)  as  it  was  impossible 
to  realize.  .  .  .  Could  they  listen  to  the  plea  of  reason  who 
had  groaned  under  the  calamities  of  a  social  state  according 
to  the  provisions  of  which  one  man  riots  in  luxury  whilst  an- 
other famishes  for  want  of  bread?  Can  he  who  the  day  before 
was  a  trampled  slave  suddenly  become  liberal-minded?  This 
is  the  consequence  of  the  habits  of  a  state  of  society  to  be 
produced  by  resolute  perseverance  and  indefatigable  hope,  and 


^"Revolt  of  Islam,  Canto  XI,  st.  22. 


118  RADICALISJI    IX    CONTEMPORARY    POETRY 

long-sufifering  and  long-believing  courage,  and  the  systematic 
efforts  of  generations  of  men  of  intellect  and  virtue."  The 
Wanderer  exhorts  the  Solitary  to  engage  in  bodily  exercise 
and  to  study  nature.  He  contrasts  the  dignity  of  the  imagi- 
nation with  the  presumptuous  littleness  of  certain  modern 
philosophers.  At  this  point  the  Solitary  remarks  that  it  is 
impossible  for  some  to  rise  again;  that  the  mind  is  not  free. 
It  is  as  vain  to  ask  a  man  to  resolve  as  bid  a  creature  fly 
''whose  very  sorrow  is  that  time  hath  shorn  his  natural  wings." 
The  Wanderer  replies  that  the  ways  of  restoration  are  mani- 
fold 

fashioned  to  the  steps 
Of  all  infirmity,  and  tending  all 
To  the  same  point,  attainable  by  all 
Peace  in  ourselves  and  union  with  our  God. 

The  W^anderer  calls  upon  the  skies  and  hills  to  testify  to  the 
existence  of  God.  AVordsworth  the  Wanderer  finds  an  answer 
for  Wordsworth  the  Solitary  in  Nature.  He  sees  that  there  is 
a  Living  Spirit  in  Nature;  a  spirit  which  animates  all  things, 
from  "the  meanest  flower  that  blows"  to  the  glorious  birth  of 
sunshine;  a  spirit  which  pervades  matter  and  gives  to  each  its 
distinctive  life  and  being.    He  sees  God  in  everything. 

To  every  form  of  being  is  assigned 

An  active  principle     .     .     . 

.     .     .     from  link  to  link 

It  circulates  the  soul  of  all  the  worlds.^" 

Shelley,  in  a  letter  to  Hogg,  January  3,  1812,  speaks  about 
*'the  soul  of  the  Universe,  the  intelligent  and  necessarily  benefi- 
cent actuating  principle." 

Wordsworth's  treatment  of  nature  is  original  in  this  that 
nature  is  no  longer  viewed  as  a  garden  or  laboratory  where 
man's  processes  are  carried  on,  but  she  is  recognized  as  being 
over  and  above  him  and  penetrating  his  whole  life  by  impulses 
that  emanate  from  her.  Wordsworth  spiritualizes  nature. 
He  views  her  phenomena  as  so  many  "varying  manifestations 
of  one  life  sacred,  great,  and  all-pervading.  "This  life  of 
nature  is  felt  more  when  man  is  alone  with  her  and  hence  the 
love  of  solitude  which   marks   the  Wordsworthian   h;)]-.:t    r." 

"TTie  Excursion,  verse  15. 


RADICALISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    POETRY  Hi) 

mind.''^*®  Other  characteristics  of  Wordsworth  besides  the 
love  for  Nature's  seclusion  are  "the  reverence  which  sees  in 
her  a  revelation  of  infinity  and  the  recognition  in  her  of  a 
mysterious  and  poetic  life."  These  are  also  characteristics  of 
Shelley.  His  love  of  solitude  is  inspired  by  the  desire  to  know 
nature  in  her  inmost  heart;  ''he  has  the  same  feeling  for  in- 
finite expanse  and  the  same  perception  of  an  underlying  life." 
He  also  insists,  like  Wordsworth,  on  "the  education  of  nature." 
In  the  preface  to  Alastor,  Shelley  says  that  the  subject  of 
the  poem  represents  a  youth  "led  forth  by  an  imagination  in- 
flamed and  purified  through  familiarity  with  all  that  is  ex- 
cellent and  majestic,  to  the  contemplation  of  the  universe. 
.  .  .  The  magnificence  and  beautj'  of  the  external  world 
sinks  profoundly  into  the  frame  of  his  conceptions  and  affords 
to  their  modifications  a  variety  not  to  be  exhausted."  In  the 
introductory  stanzas,  Shelley  asks  this  great  parent,  Nature, 
to  inspire  him  that  his  "strain  may  modulate  with  murmurs 
of  the  air."  He  tells  us,  too,  "that  every  sight  and  sound  from 
the  vast  earth  and  ambient  air  sent  to  his  heart  its  choicest 
blessings.'-     Wordsworth  says,  in  Lines  on  Tintern  Abbey,  that 

Nature  never  did  betray 
The  heart  that  loved  her:  'tis  her  privilege. 
Through  all  the  years  of  this  our  life  to  lead 
From  joy  to  joy ;  for  she  can  so  inform 
The  mind  that  is  within  us.  so  impress 
With  quietness  and  beauty,  and  so  feed 
With  lofty  thoughts,  that  neither  evil  tongues. 
Bash  judgments,  nor  the  sneers  of  selfish  men. 
Nor  greetings  where  no  kindness  is,  nor  all 
The  dreary  intercourse  of  daily  life. 
Shall  e'er  prevail  against  us  or  disturb 
Our  cheerful  faith,  that  all  which  we  behold 
Is  full  of  blessings. 

In  the  Prelude,  Wordsworth  speaks  of  the  influence  of  nature 

as  follows : 

Wisdom  and  spirit  of  the  universe! 

That  soul  that  art  the  eternity  of  thought, 

That  givest  to  forms  and  images  a  breath 

And  everlasting  motion,  not  in  vain 

By  day  or  star-liglit  thus  from  my  first  dawn 

Of  childhood  didst  thoii  intertwine  for  me 

The  passions  that  build  up  our  human  soul. 

"'L.  Winstanley  in  Englische  Studien,  V.  34. 


IW  RADICALISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    POETRY 

This  and  the  Intimations  of  Immortality  remind  us  of  the 

following  passage  in  Queen  Mab: 

Soul  of  the  Universe!  eternal  spring 
Of  life  and  death,  of  happiness  and  woe, 
Of  all  that  chequers  the  phantasmal  scene 
That  floats  before  our  ej'es  in  wavering  light, 
Which  gleams  but  on  the  darkness  of  our  prison, 
Whose  chains  and  massy  walls 
W"e  feel,  but  cannot  see. 

Wordsworth  goes  into  the  woods  and  hears  a  thousand  notes 
all  making  sweet  music,  all  in  harmony.  Furthermore,  he  feels 
that  all  living  things,  flowers  and  animals,  are  possessed  of 
conscious  life. 

And  'tis  my  faith  that  every  flower 
Enjoys  the  air  it  breathes. 

{Lines  ivritten  in  early  spr'uig.) 

Nature  is  throbbing  not  only  with  life  but  with  the  spirit  of 
love,  a  spirit  that  knits  the  whole  world  of  living  things  to- 
gether. 

Love,  now  a  universal  birth. 

From  heart  to  heart  is  stealing, 

From  earth  to  man,  from  man  to  earth. 

(To  my  sister.) 

The  same  thought  runs  through  many  of  Shelley's  poem? 
In  TJie  Sensitive  Plant  the  flowers  live,  love,  and  die. 

But  none  ever  trembled  and  panted  with  bliss 
In  the  garden,  the  field,  or  the  wilderness. 
Like  a  doe  in  the  noontide,  with  love's  sweet  want, 
As  the  companionless  sensitive  plant. 

The  beauty  and  loveliness  of  nature  will  do  us  more  good 
"than  all  the  sages  can.''  They  will  inspire  us  as  nothing 
else  will. 

Dr.  Ackermann  draws  attention  to  the  kindness  of  Words- 
worth and  Shelley  for  animals,  and  notes  the  similarity  be- 
tween the  two  following  passages."-'  Thus  Wordsworth  in 
The  Excursion,  II,  41-47: 

Birds  and  beasts 
And  the  mute  fish  that  glances  in  the  stream 
And  harmless  reptile  coiling  in  the  sun 
.     .     .     he  loved  them  all : 
Their  rights  acknowledging  he  felt  for  all. 

"•Quellen:  Vorbilder,  Stoffe  zu  Shelley's  Poetischen  Werken. 


RADICALISM    IN   CONTKMPORARY    POETRY  121 

And  Shelley  in  Alastot\  13-15: 

If  no  bright  bird,  insect,  or  gentle  beast 
I  consciously  have  injured,  but  still  loved 
And  cherished  these  my  kindred. 

Wordsworth  concludes  The  Excursion  and  Shelley  the  Alastor 
with  the  desire  for  death. 

With  the  name  of  Wordsworth,  the  name  of  that  greater 
genius,  Coleridge,  will  always  be  linked.  Although  they  were 
life-long  friends  still  no  two  could  be  more  unlike  in  character 
and  temperament.  Wordsworth  was  moody  and  determined. 
He,  like  Shelley,  worked  out  his  plans  unmindful  of  the  opin- 
ion of  others.  Neglect  and  ridicule  did  not  trouble  him  in  the 
least.  He  was  an  excellent  type  of  mens  sana  in  corpore  sano. 
Coleridge,  on  the  other  hand,  was  without  ambition  and 
steadiness  of  purpose.  He  drifted  on  through  life  in  a  listless 
manner,  ''sometimes  committing  a  golden  thought  to  the  blank 
leaf  of  a  book,  or  to  a  private  letter,  but  generally  content 
with  oral  communication."^'-'*^  At  an  early  age  he  had  accom- 
plished great  things  and  it  was  felt  that  these  were  but  "the 
morning  giving  promise  of  a  glorious  day."  He  was  scarcely 
thirty  when  he  won  distinction  as  a  poet,  journalist,  lecturer, 
theologian,  critic  and  philosopher.  The  "glorious  day,"  how- 
ever, never  matured.  Sickness  and  opium  were  the  clouds  that 
obscured  the  brightness  of  his  genius.  His  married  life  was 
not  a  happy  one.  As  in  the  case  of  Shelley,  jealousy  and  irri- 
tation on  the  part  of  the  wife,  and  disenchantment  on  the  part 
of  the  husband  made  home-life  intolerable. 

One  of  the  earliest  manifestations  of  Coleridge's  radicalism 
is  his  Ode  on,  the  Destruction  of  the  Bastile,  written  in  1789. 
In  it  he  rejoices  at  the  overthrow  of  tyranny  and  the  success 
of  Freedom.  Liberty  with  all  her  attendant  virtues  will  now 
be  the  portion  of  all. 

Yes!     Liberty  the  soul  of  life  shall  reign 

Shall  throb  in  every  pulse,  shall  flow  thro'  every  vein ! 

He  hopes  that  she  will  extend  her  influence  wider  and  wider 
until  every  land  shall  boast  "one  independent  soul."  In  his 
Ode  to  France  he  writes : 


""Jenkins:    Handbook  of  Literature,  p.  313. 


1'2'2  RADICALISM    IX    CONTEMPORARY    POETRY 

With  what  deep  worship  I  have  still  adored 
The  spirit  of  divinest  Liberty. 

h^helley  may  have  had  this  in  mind  when  he  wrote  in  Alastor 

And  lofty  hopes  of  divine  liberty 
Thonghts  the  most  dear  to  him. 

Coleridge's  most  important  radical  work,  which  Lamb  con- 
sidered to  be  more  than  worthy  of  Milton,  is  Religious  Musingi^. 
Shelley's  Queoi  Mah  bears  so  strong  a  resemblance  to  it  that 
the  Religious  Musings  has  been  called  Coleridge's  Queen  Mdh. 
In  the  first  part  he  lashes  his  countrymen  for  joining  the  coali- 
tion against  France  nnder  i^retence  of  defending  religion. 
Further  on  he  gives  his  views  on  society,  its  origin  and 
progress.  It  is  to  private  property  that  we  must  attribute 
all  the  sore  ills  that  desolate  our  mortal  life.  Unlike  many 
radicals,  however,  Coleridge  can  see  the  good  in  an  institutioM 
as  well  as  the  evil.  Thus  he  holds  that  the  rivalry  resulting 
from  our  present  economic  condition  has  stimulated  thought 
and  action 

From  avarice  thus,  from  luxury  and  war. 

Sprang  heavenly  science;  and  from  science  freedom. 

The  innumerable  multitude  of  wrongs,  continues  Coleridge, 
by  man  on  man  inflicted,  cry  to  heaven  for  vengeance.  Even 
now  (1796)  the  storm  begins  which  will  cast  to  earth  the 
rich,  the  great,  and  all  the  mighty  men  of  the  world.  This  will 
be  followed  by  a  period  of  sunshine,  when  Love  will  return  and 
peace  and  happiness  be  the  portion  of  all. 

As  when  a  shepherd  on  a  vernal  morn 

Through  some  thick  fog  creeps  timorous  with  slow  foot. 

Darkling  with  earnest  eyes  he  traces  out 

The  immediate  road,  all  else  of  fairest  kind 

Hid  or  deformed.     But  lol  the  bursting  Sun  I 

Touched  by  the  enchantment  of  that  sudden  beam 

Straight  the  black  vapor  melteth,  and  in  globes 

Of  dewy  glitter  gems  each  plant  and  tree; 

On  every  leaf,  on  every  blade  it  hangs ; 

And  wide  around  the  landscape  streams  with  glory! 

So  we  will  Hy  into  the  sun  of  love,  impartially  view  creation, 
and  love  it  all.  We  will  then  see  that  God  diffused  through 
society  makes  it  one  whole:  that  everv  victorious  murder  is  a 


RADICALISM    IN   CONTEMrORARY    POETRY  1?3 

blind  suicide;  that  no  one  injures  and  is  not  uninjured.  This 
change  will  be  brought  about  by  a  return  to  pure  Faith  and 
meek  Piety.  He  differs  from  Shelley  in  this,  that  he  does 
not  look  for  reformation  through  the  overturning  of  thrones 
and  churches.  The  existing  frame-work  of  society  is  all  right; 
it  needs  only  to  be  freed  from  some  of  its  barnacles. 

The  first  stanza  of  Coleridge's  Love  reminds  one  of  the  fol- 
lowing passage  from  Shelley's  Prometheus  Unbound  (Act 
IV,  406)  : 

His  will,  with  all   mean  passions,  bad   delights 
And  selfish  cares,  its  trembling  satellites, 
A  spirit  ill  to  guide,  but  mighty  to  obey, 
Is  as  a  tempest-winged  ship,  whose  helm 
Love  rules. 

Coleridge's  stanza  runs  as  follows : 

All  thoughts,  all  passions,  all  delights 
Whatever  stirs  this  mortal  frame 
All  are  but  ministers  of  Love 
And  feed  his  sacred  flame.^''^ 

Shelley's  sonnet  to  lanthe  is  little  more  than  a  transposition 
of  Coleridge's  sonnet  to  his  son.    Shelley  says : 

I  love  thee.  Baby  I   for   thine   own   sweet   sake : 
Those  azure  ej-es,  tliat  faintly  dimpled  cheek. 
Thy  tender  frame,  so  eloquently  weak. 
Love  in  the  sternest  heart  of  hate  might  wake ; 
But  more  when  o'er  thy  fitful  slumber  bending 
Thy  mother  folds  thee  to  her  wakeful  heart. 
Whilst  love  and  pity,  in  her  glances  blending. 
All  that  thy  passive  eyes  can  feel  impart: 
More,  when  some  feeble  lineaments  of  her. 
Who  bore  thy  weight  beneath  her  spotless  bosom. 
As  with  deep  love  I  read  thy  face,  recur, — 
More  dear  art  thou,  O  fair  and  fragile  blossom ; 
Dearest  when  most  thy  tender  traits  express 
The  image  of  thy  mother's  loveliness. ^^- 

Coleridge's  runs  as  follows: 

Charles  I  my  slow  heart  was  only  sad  when  first 

I  scanned  that  face  of  feeble  infancy : 

For  dimly  on  my  thoughtful  spirit  burst 

All  I  had  been,  and  all  mv  child  might  be  I 


'"Dowden's  ed.,  p.  135. 

"'Dowden's  Life  of  Shelley,  Vol.  I,  p.  376. 


124  RADICALISM    IN    CONTEMPORARY    POETRY 

But  when  I  saw  it  on  its  mother's  arm, 
And  hanging  at  her  bosom    (she  the  while 
Bent  o'er  its  features  with  a  tearful  smile), 
Then  I  was  thrilled  and  melted,  and  most  warm 
Impressed  a  father's  kiss;  and  all  beguiled 
Of  dark  remembrance  and  presageful  fear, 
1  seemed  to  see  an  angel's  form  appear — 
'Twas  even  thine,  beloved  woman  mild ! 
So  for  the  mother's  sake  the  child  was  dear 
And  dearer  was  the  mother  for  the  child. 

Coleridge  and  Shelley  made  a  universal  application  of  a 
few  metaphysical  principles  acquired  in  their  early  years;  and 
on  them  ground  their  political  and  religious  views.  Poetry, 
metaphysics,  morals  and  politics  mixed  themselves  forever  in 
their  imagination."^ 


'Courthope:  History  of  Poetry,  Vol.  VI,  p.  194. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CONCLUSION 

The  radical,  when  theorizing,  considers  aian  in  thf  abstract. 
He  forgets  about  actual  conditions — man  with  his  inequali- 
ties. The  only  thing  necessary,  in  his  view,  for  the  reforma- 
tion of  society  is  to  lay  before  mankind  some  logical  plan  of 
action.  He  loses  sight  of  the  fact  that  other  influences,  besides 
logic,  play  a  part  in  the  moulding  of  man's  conduct.  Newman 
says  teach  men  to  shoot  around  corners  and  then  you  may 
hope  to  convert  them  by  means  of  syllogisms.  '"One  feels,'' 
Emerson  writes,  ''that  these  philosophers  have  skipped  no 
fact  but  one,  namely,  life.  They  treat  man  as  a  plastic  thing, 
or  something  that  may  be  put  up  or  down,  ripened  or  re- 
tarded, molded,  polished,  made  into  solid  or  fluid  or  gas  at 
the  will  of  the  leader.'*'^*  The  radical  sees  the  millenium  dawi) 
ing  upon  the  land  every  time  a  new  scheme  its  proposed  for 
the  amelioration  of  society.  They  do  not  apply  any  tests  to 
determine  its  adaptability  to  the  needs  of  the  people.  It  satis- 
fies the  rules  of  logic  and  for  them  this  is  sufficient.  Burke 
considers  this  point  in  his  speech,  "On  Conciliation  with 
America."  *'It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  mankind  follow 
up  practically  any  speculative  principle  as  far  as  it  will  go 
in  argument  and  in  logical  illation.  All  government,  indeed 
every  human  benefit  and  enjoyment,  every  virtue  and  every 
prudent  act  is  founded  on  compromise  and  barter.  We  balance 
inconveniences;  we  give  and  take;  we  remit  some  rights  that 
we  may  enjoy  others.  Man  acts  from  motives  relative  to  his 
interests;  and  not  on  metaphysical  speculations." 

Shelley  could  not  understand  how  it  is  that  evils  continue 
so  pertinaciously  to  exist  in  society.  He  believed  that  men  h.m 
but  to  will  that  there  would  be  no  evil  and  there  would  bt- 
none.  It  seemed  to  him  that  he  could  construct  inside  twenty- 
four  hours  a  system  of  government  and  morals  that  would  be 
perfect.  ''The  science,"  Burke  writes,  "of  constructing  a  com- 
monwealth, or  renovating  it,  or  reforming  it,  is,  like  every 


*Essay  on  Owen. 

125 


126  CONCLUSION 

other  experimental  science  not  to  be  tanght  a  priori.  Nor  is  it 
a  short  experience  that  can  instruct  us  in  that  practical 
science.  .  .  .  The  science  of  government  being  therefore  so 
practical  in  itself,  and  intended  for  such  practical  purposes, 
a  matter  which  requires  experience,  and  even  more  experience 
than  any  person  can  gain  in  his  whole  life,  however  sagacious 
and  observing  he  may  be,  it  is  with  injfinite  caution  that  any 
man  ought  to  venture  upon  pulling  down  an  edifice  which  has 
answered  in  any  tolerable  degree  for  ages  the  common  purposes 
of  society,  or  on  building  it  up  again  without  having  models 
and  patterns  of  ai)proved  utility  before  his  eyes."^''^ 

The  radical  does  not  distinguish  between  essentials  and  non- 
essentials. He  sees  some  evils  in  connection  with  an  institu- 
tion and  forthwith  would  wipe  that  institution  out  of  exist- 
ence. Garrison  thought  there  was  something  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  that  sanctioned  slavery  and  so  he 
described  the  constitution  as  ''a  league  with  death  and  a 
covenant  with  hell."  As  late  as  1820  Shelley  believed  that 
"the  system  of  society  as  it  exists  at  present  must  be  over- 
thrown from  the  foundations  with  all  its  superstructures  of 
maxims  and  of  forms.''^^*'  He  sees  the  evil  and  misses  the  good. 
The  radical  and  the  conservative  both  sin  in  this,  that  they 
take  the  cause  of  their  adversaries  not  by  its  strong  end,  but 
by  its  weakest. 

Imaginative  people  see  a  few  things  clearly,  and  on  that 
account  do  not  see  the  whole.  Their  attention  is  entirely  taken 
up  with  a  few  details.  Shelley  had  no  connected  view  of  the 
world.  He  has  brilliant,  perhaps  exaggerated,  pictures  of 
parts  of  it.  He  picks  out  some  misery  here  and  some  injus- 
tice there,  and  condemns  the  whole.  Again,  he  does  not  offer 
a  complete  philosophy  of  life  for  us  to  follow.  He  takes  a 
truth  here  and  another  there  and  deifies  them,  exaggerates 
them  as  he  does  pictures  of  the  world.  His  thoughts  were 
so  vivid  that  they  outshone  the  counsels  of  the  more  conserva- 
tive. They  impressed  him  so  much  that  he  could  not  see 
their  limitations.  Single  views,  a  simple  philosophy  suited 
him.     For  this  reason  he  made  his  guides  and  leaders  those 


"'Reflections,  Vol.  V. 

'"Letter  to  Leigh  mint,  May  1,  1820. 


CONCLUSION  127 

philosophers  of  the  eighteenth  century  who  discarded  tlie  tor- 
tnous  philosophy  of  the  past  and  put  forward  a  simple  recipe 
which  was  to  bring  light  and  liappiness  to  the  world. 

Radicals  do  a  great  deal  of  good  by  shaking  off  our  social 
torpor  and  disturbing  our  self-sutticient  complacency.  But 
they  very  often  cause  a  great  deal  of  harm,  and  then  society 
has  a  perfect  right  to  defend  itself  against  them.  If  they 
ignore  the  past,  if  they  disregard  the  wisdom  of  centuries, 
if  they  tend  to  subvert  all  that  has  been  already  done,  they 
are  not  effecting  the  betterment  of  society,  but  its  destruction. 
True  reformers  link  themselves  with  the  good  already  existing 
in  society  and  war  only  against  its  evils.  They  will  start 
with  things  as  they  are.  Burke  says  that  ''the  idea  of  inherit- 
ance furnishes  a  sure  principle  of  conservation  and  a  sure 
principle  of  transmission,  without  at  all  excluding  a  principle 
of  improvement.  It  leaves  acquisition  free;  but  it  secures 
what  it  acquires.  ...  By  preserving  the  method  of  nature  in 
the  conduct  of  the  state,  in  what  we  improve  we  are  never 
wholly  new;  in  what  we  retain  we  are  never  wholly  obsolete." 
True,  progress  in  all  the  arts  and  sciences  requires  a  certain 
readiness  to  experiment  with  the  unknown  and  try  something 
new.  Yet  if  that  readiness  be  reckless,  disaster  will  surely  be 
the  result.  Desire  to  move  forward  must  be  moderate,  must 
be  harmonized  with  distrust  of  the  unknown  if  real  progress 
is  to  ensue. 

To  improve  society  we  must  understand  it,  and  to  do  this 
we  must  recognize  its  positive  value.  The  work  of  social  re- 
formers would  be  more  effective  if  they  had  a  better  knowledge 
of  existing  laws  and  institutions.  As  a  rule  soap-box  orators 
declaim  against  things  about  which  they  know  little  or  nothing. 
A  clear  consciousness  then  of  the  good  in  the  world,  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  principles  which  bind  this  social  world 
together  is  indispensable  to  the  social  reformer.  To  under- 
stand an  object  is  to  see  through  its  defects  to  the  positive 
qualities  that  constitute  it ;  for  nothing  is  made  up  of  its  own 
shortcomings.  Hence  we  must  place  our  faitli  in  evolution 
rather  than  revolution.  Any  reform  that  is  to  be  made  must 
be  founded  in  the  good  at  present  working  in  the  world. 

It   cannot  be  said  that  Shellev  liad   a   clear  consciousness 


128  CONCLUSION 

of  the  social  forces  at  work  in  society  or  of  the  good  being 
done  by  the  institutions  of  his  time.  He  admitted  himself 
that  he  detested  history,  and  one  cannot  form  a  just  estimate 
of  institutions  without  knowing  something  about  their  his- 
tory. Had  he  known  something  about  the  real  history  of 
Christianity  or  of  the  development  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment in  England  he  would  not  probably  have  been  the  radical 
that  he  was.  He  did  not  see  that  the  institutions  of  his  time 
were  the  product  of  the  efforts  of  generations  of  men;  he  did 
not  realize  that  the  social  structure  is  the  most  complicated 
and  delicate  of  all  the  products  of  human  nature,  and  conse- 
quently did  not  appreciate  the  folly  of  some  of  the  radical 
changes  he  proposed. 

Shelley  had  a  horror  of  tradition  and  prejudice;  yet  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  prejudice  is  necessary.  A  man  who  would 
solve  all  the  problems  of  life  without  falling  back  on  tradition 
would  be  obliged,  in  each  of  the  decisions  that  he  would  make, 
to  follow  a  line  of  thought  or  argumentation  which  would 
impose  an  intolerable  burden  on  him.  According  to  Shelley, 
the  morality  of  an  act  is  to  be  measured  by  the  utilitarian 
standard,  "the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number."  How 
though  can  we  measure  the  pleasure  and  the  pain  that  flows 
from  an  action?  In  many  cases  we  must  take  the  judgment 
of  the  race;  we  must  be  guided  by  prejudice  or  tradition. 
^'Prejudice,"  writes  Burke,  "is  of  ready  application  in  the 
emergency;  it  previously  engages  the  mind  in  a  steady  course 
of  wisdom  and  virtue,  and  does  not  leave  the  man  hesitating 
in  the  moment  of  decision,  sceptical,  puzzled  and  unresolved. 
Prejudice  renders  a  man's  virtue  his  habit  and  not  a  series  of 
unconnected  acts.  Through  just  prejudice,  his  duty  becomes 
a  part  of  his  nature."^^^ 

The  radical  lays  too  much  stress  on  the  influence  of  institu- 
tions. Shelley  ascribed  to  them  all  the  evils  of  society.  He 
was  confident  that  a  remodelling  of  them  would  bring  about 
a  complete  reformation  of  society.  Social  wrongs  are  caused 
by  men  and  men  alone  can  cure  them. 

The  radical  is  so  taken  up  with  his  own  ideas  that  he 
soon  becomes  eccentric.    He  loses,  too,  all  sense  of  humor.    He 


"'Letter  to  Leigh  Hunt,  p.  82. 


CONCLUSION  129 

sees  nothing  but  tragedy  confronting  him  at  every  turn.  At 
Leghorn,  Shelley,  accompanied  by  a  friend,  visited  a  ship 
which  was  manned  by  Greek  sailors.  ''Does  this  realize  your 
idea  of  Hellenism,  Shelley?"  his  friend  asked.  ''No !  but  it  does 
of  hell,"  he  replied.  Almost  every  radical  is  lacking  in  tact, 
in  moderation  and  in  the  sense  of  practical  life. 

The  radical  is  apt  to  think  that  everybody  is  against  him. 
He  does  not  credit  his  opponents  with  honest  convictions,  and 
so  he  imagines  that  he  is  being  unjustly  persecuted.  Shelley 
thought  that  even  his  father  sought  to  injure  him.  ''The 
idea,''  Peacock  writes,  "that  his  father  was  continually  on  the 
watch  for  a  pretext  to  lock  him  up  haunted  him  through  life." 

This  brings  us  to  several  of  Shelley's  traits  which  are  char- 
acteristic of  genius  or  insanity  rather  than  of  radicalism. 
In  his  Man  of  Genius  Professor  Lombroso  says  that  the  char- 
acteristics of  insane  men  of  genius  are  met  with,  though  far 
less  conspicuously,  among  the  great  men  freest  from  any  sus- 
picion of  insanity.  ''Between  the  physiology  of  the  man  of 
genius,"  he  writes,  ''and  the  pathology  of  the  insane,  there 
are  many  points  of  coincidence;  there  is  even  actual  contin- 
uity." 

One  of  the  most  important  of  these  characteristics  is  hallu- 
cination. Examples  of  geniuses  who  were  subject  to  halluci- 
nations are  Caesar,  Brutus,  Cellini,  Napoleon,  Dr.  Johnson, 
and  Pope.  Shortly  before  his  death  Shelley  saw  a  child  rise 
from  the  sea  and  clap  its  hands.  At  Tanyralt,  on  the  night  of 
February  26,  1813,  Shelley  imagined  that  he  heard  a  noise  pro- 
ceeding from  one  of  the  parlors  and  immediately  went  down- 
stairs armed  with  two  pistols.  There,  he  said,  he  found  a 
man  who  fired  at  him  but  missed.  The  report  of  Shelley's 
pistol  brought  the  rest  of  the  family  on  the  scene,  but  none  of 
them  could  find  any  trace  of  the  intruder.  It  is  generally 
conceded  that  this  attack  took  place  only  in  Shelley's  fertile 
imagination.  At  another  time  Shelley  imagined  that  he  was 
afflicted  with  elephantiasis.  One  day  towards  the  close  of 
1813  he  was  traveling  in  a  coach  with  a  fat  old  lady,  who,  he 
felt  sure,  must  be  a  victim  of  this  disease.  Later  on  at  Mr. 
Newton's  house  as  "he  was  sitting  in  an  arm  chair,"  writes 
Madame  Gatayes,  "talking  to  my  father  and  mother,  lie  sud- 


130  CONCLUSION 

denly  slipped  down  on  the  ground,  twisting  about  like  an  eel. 
'What  is  the  matter?'  cried  my  mother.  In  his  impressive  tone 
Shelley  announced  'I  have  the  elephantiasis.'  .  .  .  After  a  few 
weeks  this  hallucination  left  him  as  suddenly  as  it  came. 

''He  took  strange  caprices,"  writes  Hogg,  ''unfounded  frights 
and  dislikes,  vain  apprehensions  and  panic  terrors  and  there- 
fore he  absented  himself  from  formal  and  sacred  engagements." 
It  is  well  to  keep  this  in  mind  when  reading  some  of  the 
criticism  of  Shelley.  J.  C.  Jeafferson  cites  a  long  list  of  facts 
to  prove  that  Shelley  was  a  wilful  prevaricator.  Almost  all 
of  these  can  be  explained  away  through  the  assumption  that 
Shelley  himself  was  deceived  when  he  told  something  that  did 
not  square  with  the  known  facts  of  the  case.  "Had  he,"  writes 
Hogg,  "written  to  ten  different  individuals  the  history  of  some 
proceeding  in  which  he  was  himself  a  party  and  an  eye-witness 
each  of  his  ten  reports  would  have  varied  from  the  rest  in  essen- 
tial and  important  circumstances." 

''Genius,"  says  Lombroso,  "is  conscious  of  itself,  appreciates 
itself,  and  certainly  has  no  monkish  humility."  Shelley  often 
expressed  regret  that  the  rest  of  mankind  was  not  as  good  as 
himself  and  his  soulmate.  Miss  Hitchener.  He  thought  that 
he  had  no  faults. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  genius  is  that  he  must  be 
continually  traveling  from  one  place  to  another.  This  is  cer- 
tainly true  of  Shelley.  He  seldom  remained  longer  than  a  year 
in  one  place. 

Shelley  in  common  with  most  sane  men  of  genius  was  much 
preoccuined  with  his  own  ego.  He  loved  to  talk  and  write 
about  himself  and  his  opinions.  The  most  important  of  his 
poems  contain  pictures  of  himself. 

•'These  energetic  intellects,"  writes  Lombroso,  "are  the  true 
pioneers  of  science;  they  rush  forward  regardless  of  danger, 
facing  with  eagerness  the  greatest  difficulties — perhaps  be- 
cause it  is  these  which  best  satisfy  their  morbid  energy." 
Shelley  was  always  embarking  on  some  foolish  enterprise. 
He  ran  away  with  a  school  girl  without  having  in  sight  any 
means  of  support.  He  went  to  Ireland  to  emancipate  the 
whole  race;  and  after  this  failed  he  set  about  reclaiming  a 
large  tract  of  land  from  the  sea  at  the  little  town  of  Tremadoc, 


CONCLUSION  131 

Wales.  He  finally  lost  his  life  through  venturing  out  to  sea 
in  stormy  weather  with  an  undermanned  boat.^"® 

Matthew  Arnold's  dictum,  then,  that  Shelley  was  not  sane 
is  a  gross  exaggeration.  The  characteristics  of  his  life  which 
would  seem  to  uphold  Arnold's  assertion  are  found  in  sane 
men  of  genius.  That  he  was  abnormal  in  some  ways  cannot 
be  denied,  hi  a  letter  which  Mrs.  Shelley  wrote  to  Sir  John 
Bowring  when  she  sent  him  the  holograi)h  manuscript  of  the 
Mask  of  Anarchy,  there  is  the  following  reference  to  her  hus- 
band :  "Do  not  be  afraid  of  losing  the  impression  you  have  con- 
cerning my  lost  Shelley  by  conversing  with  anyone  who  knows 
about  him.  The  mysterious  feeling  you  experience  was  partici- 
pated by  all  his  friends,  even  by  me,  who  was  ever  with 
him — or  why  say  even  I  felt  it  more  than  any  other,  because 
by  sharing  his  fortune,  I  was  more  aware  that  any  other 
of  his  wondrous  excellencies  and  the  strange  fate  which  at- 
tended him  on  all  occasions.  ...  I  do  not  in  any  degree  be- 
lieve that  his  being  was  regulated  by  the  same  laws  that  govern 
the  existence  of  us  common  mortals,  nor  did  anyone  think 
so  who  ever  knew  him.  I  have  endeavored,  but  how  inade- 
quately, to  give  some  idea  of  him  in  my  last  published  book — 
the  sketch  has  pleased  some  of  those  who  best  loved  him — 
I  might  have  made  more  of  it,  but  there  are  feelings  which 
one  recoils  from  unveiling  to  the  public  eye."^''^ 

Shelley  always  remained  a  child.  This  was  the  opinion  of 
one  of  his  greatest  admirers,  Francis  Thompson.  "The  child 
appeared  no  less  often  in  Shelley  the  philosopher  than  in 
Shelley  the  idler.  It  is  seen  in  his  repellant  no  less  than  in  his 
amiable  weaknesses."  To  this  fact,  perhaps,  may  be  ascribed 
the  luxuriance  of  his  imagination ;  it  is  freer  in  childhood 
than  in  old  age. 

Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy! 
Shades   of   the   prison-house   begin   to    close 

Upon  the  growing  boy. 
But  he  beholds  the  light  and  whence  it  flows 

He  sees  it  in  his  joy.^""' 

He  has   been  described   as   "a   beautiful   spirit   building   his 


"•Guido  Biagi:   Gli  ultimi  giorni  di  P.  Shelley. 
"•Quoted  in  Shelley  Society  Papers,  Part  I,  p.  94. 
"'Wordsworth:    Ode  on  the  Intimations  of  Immortality. 


IS-^  CONCLUSION 

many-colored  haze  of  words  and  images."  For  him  idealism 
was  more  than  a  need  of  the  spirit;  it  was  the  principal  ele- 
ment of  his  being.-"^  Anyone  who  cleared  away  obstacles 
from  the  path  of  his  imagination  had  all  the  attraction  of  a 
kindred  spirit.  This  helps  to  explain  Godwin's  influence  over 
him.  His  father-in-law  advocated  the  entire  abolition  of  exist- 
ing institutions,  and  left  the  work  of  reconstruction  to  man's 
imagination.  Here  it  was  that  Shelley  found  full  scope  for 
the  exercise  of  his  faculties.  He  cannot  be  said  to  have  con- 
tributed many  original  ideas  to  nineteenth  century  literature. 
"He  merely  familiarizes  the  highly  refined  imagination  of  the 
more  select  classes  of  poetical  readers  with  beautiful  idealisms 
of  moral  excellence." 

Kadicalism  is  a  characteristic  of  youth.  Almost  every  per- 
son who  is  of  any  importance  in  his  community  will  be  found 
to  have  started  out  in  life,  boiling  over  with  enthusiasm  and 
eager  to  help  on  reform  by  advocating  a  change  in  this  or  that 
institution.  'S'ery  often  this  interferes  with  their  judgment. 
Bacon  had  this  in  mind  when  he  wrote:  ''Is  not  the  opinion 
of  Aristotle  worthy  to  be  regarded  wherein  he  saith  that  j'ouug 
men  are  not  fit  auditors  of  moral  philosophy,  because  they 
are  not  settled  from  the  boiliug-heat  of  their  affections  nor 
tempered  with  time  and  experience."-**-  Shakespeare  endorses 
this  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  II,  scene  2. 

not  much 
Unlike  young  men,  whom  Ai'istotle  thought 
Unfit  to  hear  moral  philosophy. 

That  Shelley,  had  he  lived,  would  have  followed  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Wordsworth,  Coleridge  and  Southey  and  become  a  con- 
servative may  well  be  doubted.  However,  his  life  shows  some 
progress  in  that  direction.  He  had  learned  to  become  more 
tolerant  of  various  types  of  men:  and  Stopford  Brooke  main- 
tains that  there  are  indications  in  Shelley's  works  to  show 
that  he  would  have  become  a  Christian. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  Shelley  never  came  into  close  personal 


'""Tutte  le  circostanze  della  vita  dello  Shelley  attestano  come  in  lui 
la  poesia,  la  visione,  I'idealismo  fossero,  piu  che  un  bisogno  dello  spirito, 
il  principale  elemento  costitutive  dell  esser  suo."  G.  Chiariul,  Ombre 
e  figure. 

'"^Advancement  of  Learning,  Book  II. 


CONCLUSION  133 

contact  with  a  Burke  who  could  take  him  out  of  the  region  of 
imagination  and  make  him  appreciate  the  beauty  of  order  and 
institutions.  Had  Shelle}^  met  such  a  one  he  might  have 
been  influenced  in  the  way  that  the  Greek  Augustine  was  bene- 
fited by  the  Eoman  Ambrose.  Southey  might  have  helped 
Shelley  if  he  had  shown  more  consideration  for  our  poet's  ex- 
tremely sensitive  feelings.  Southey's  pet  argument  was  that 
Shelley  was  too  young  to  understand  the  question  they  were 
discussing.  "When  you  are  as  old  as  I  am,"  he  would  say, 
''then  you  will  see  things  in  a  different  light."  Such  a  line 
of  reasoning  has  no  influence  on  men  of  Shelley's  stamp. 

Aubrey  De  Vere,  in  a  letter  to  Henry  Taylor,  December  12, 
1882,  states  that  Shelley's  character  had  two  great  natural 
defects.  The  first  was  a  want  of  robustness  which  took  away 
from  him  stability  and  self-possession.  The  second  was  his 
want  of  reverence.  "There  is,"  he  writes,  ''an  insolence  of 
audacity  in  some  passages  of  Shelley  on  religious  subjects 
which  admits  only  of  two  interpretations,  viz.,  something  in 
his  original  cerebral  organization  doubtless  augmented  by 
circumstances  that  hindered  proper  development  in  some  part 
of  it  or  else  pride  in  quite  an  extraordinary  degree."  Lest  this 
should  appear  to  give  De  Vere's  complete  view  of  Shelley  I 
quote  further  from  the  same  letter.  "Something  angelic  there 
was  certainly  about  him,  something  that  I  recognized  from 
the  first  day  that  I  read  his  poetry.  His  intelligence  had 
also  a  keen  logic  about  it." 

The  radical  is  gifted  with  a  powerful  coust'ructive  imagina- 
tion. He  feels  keenly  the  failures  of  institutions  and  is  led 
to  construct  an  ideal  state  of  society.  He  takes  all  the  good 
he  knows,  joins  the  pieces  together,  beautifies  and  adorns  the 
picture  until  he  has  formed  an  earthly  paradise.  This  has  its 
advantages  as  only  those  whose  imaginations  are  fired  by  fine 
ideals  will  ever  stir  the  world  with  noble  deeds.  To  succeed 
you  must,  as  Emerson  expresses  it,  '"hitch  your  wagon  to  a 
star." 

Imagination  has,  of  course,  its  dangers.  Some  are  content 
to  day  dream;  to  live  in  the  world  of  their  imagination.  They 
are  impatient  of  the  failures,  of  the  slow,  steady  toil  that  pre- 
cedes success.     They  forget  that  change  works  slowly.     "He 


13t  CONCLUSION 

who  has  a  clear  grasp  of  a  concrete  ideal  and  a  clear  insight 
into  the  conditions,  realization,  and  the  difficulties  in  the  actual 
world  by  which  it  is  beset  will  be  the  true  social  reformer  of 
the  world. "^°^  Shelley  had  a  good  grasp  of  the  ideal,  but  he 
did  not  know  how  to  cross  over  from  the  ideal  to  the  real. 
This  journey  is  a  long  and  tedious  one.  "All  progress,"  Mac- 
Kenzie  writes,  "which  is  guided  by  an  ideal  must  be  more  or 
less  of  the  nature  of  a  stumble."-"*  "Our  very  walking,"  as 
Goethe  puts  it,  "is  a  series  of  falls."  Bacon  writes,  "certainly 
it  is  heaven  upon  earth  to  have  a  man's  mind  move  in  charity, 
rest  in  Providence,  and  turn  upon  the  poles  of  the  earth," 
Shelley's  mind  moved  in  charity,  but  turned  anywhere  except 
upon  the  poles  of  the  earth. 

Notwithstanding  all  its  shortcomings  radicalism  fulfils  a 
very  useful  purpose  in  society.  It  keeps  before  our  eyes  the 
ideal.  "It  emphasizes  the  moral  over  the  material;  man  over 
property.  Its  prominence  in  society  insures  progress  and  gives 
promise  that  ideals  shall  not  perish ;  that  hope  shall  not  wane, 
and  that  society  shall  long  for  perfection  and  peace,  without 
which  longing  no  progress  is  possible."-"^  Radicalism  em- 
phasizes the  ideal;  conservatism  the  real.  Out  of  the  two 
springs  progress.  "One  is  the  moving  power;  the  other  the 
steadying  power  of  the  state.  One  is  the  sail  without  which 
society  would  make  no  progress ;  the  other  the  ballast  without 
which  there  would  be  small  safety  in  a  tempest."-"^ 

It  is  strange  that  the  experience  of  centuries  has  not  taught 
men  to  be  more  tolerant  towards  the  radical.  We  see  how 
blind  was  the  generation  behind  us  in  resisting  the  obvious 
reforms  which  it  was  asked  to  approve ;  yet  it  never  enters  our 
heads  to  suspect  that  the  next  generation  will  consider  as 
obvious  reforms  what  we  consider  subversive  proposals,  and 
will  wonder  at  our  stupidity  in  having  offered  any  resistance 
to  them. 
/    Shelley  was  a  "sentimental"  rather  than  a  "philosophical"^"^ 

""J.  S.  McKenzie:   Social  Philosophy,  p.  428. 
'"Ibid.,  p.  42. 

""Am.  Cath.  Quarterly.  Vol.  28,  p.  239. 
"•MacAulay:     Essay  on  the  Earl  of  Chatham. 

-'"'Carlyle  calls  the  philosophical  radicals  "paralytic  radicals"  because 
their  theories  lead  to  inaction. 


CONCLUSION  l-'J.^ 

radical.    He  inflamed  wills  rather  than  enlightened  minds.    He 
roused  men  to  action  instead  of  solving  difficult  problems. 

Man  is  influenced  more  by  his  emotions  than  by  his  intellect 
and  hence  the  importance  of  the  position  which  the  sentimental 
radical  holds  in  the  history  of  society.  If  the  radical  arouses 
helpful  emotions  tlie  amount  of  good  he  does  is  incalculable,  so 
too  is  the  amount  of  harm  an  unwise  radical  is  responsible  for. 

The  emotions  whicli  Slielloy's  jtoetiy  arouse  are  on  the  whole 
helpful.  True  a  lew  of  the  details  of  one  or  two  of  his  works 
should  be  condemned,  but  these  usually  serve  to  bring  out  the 
main  idea  of  the  work  which  is  always  an  inspiring  one. 
Nobody  thinks  of  condemning  "Lear"  because  of  the  vileness 
of  Goneril,  If  we  would  interpret  any  writer's  meaning  and 
message  the  first  thing  to  attend  to  is  to  regard  the  work  ''as 
a  whole  bearing  on  life  as  a  whole."  Doing  this  we  will  grasp 
what  is  central,  and  at  the  same  time  will  appreciate  the  true 
value  of  all  details.  Francis  Thompson  does  not  believe  that 
any  one  ever  had  his  faith  shaken  through  reading  Shelley. 
He  knows,  too,  only  of  three  passages  to  which  exception 
might  be  taken  from  a  moral  point  of  view.  Shelley  extolled 
Justice,  Freedom  and  Equality;  and  he  denounced  tyranny 
and  injustice.  His  poetry  should  inspire  men  to  be  more 
charitable  and  tolerant,  to  seek  less  after  wealth  and  the 
applause  of  the  world,  to  sympathize  more  and  more  with 
suffering  humanity,  to  return  good  for  evil  and  to  pursue  the 
common  good  of  all  with  more  zeal  and  enthusiasm. 

One  or  more  of  the  faculties  of  every  poet  are  more  highly 
developed  than  those  of  ordinary  people.  In  some  cases  it  is 
the  senses;  in  others  the  imagination.  Tennyson  and  Words- 
worth are  good  examples  of  the  first  class.  They  note  and 
describe  shades  of  color — in  flowers,  in  the  sky — the  music  of 
waters,  and  a  hundred  other  things  that  escape  the  notice  of 
common  mortals.  In  Shelley  it  is  his  imagination,  his  faculty 
for  feeling  the  sufferings  of  others  that  is  abnormal.  He  sees  a 
woman  afflicted  with  elephantiasis,  and  straightway  imagines 
that  he  himself  has  the  same  disease.  Shelley  keenly  feels  the 
misery  around  him,  gives  expression  to  that  feeling,  and 
castigates  the  causes  of  that  misery. 


136  CONCLUSION 

Shelley's  poetry  exercises  our  imagination,  takes  us  away 
from  ourselves  and  makes  us  think  about  our  neighbors.  The 
great  trouble  with  the  world  today  is  that  men  think  only 
about  themselves,  their  own  wants  and  their  own  joys.  If  we 
were  made  to  feel  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  one-half  of  the 
evils  of  society  would  be  eliminated.  Anything  then  that 
brings  home  to  us  the  evils  of  society  is  a  blessing.  "Every 
grade  of  culture,"  writes  Dr.  Kerby,  "has  its  own  spirit  of 
fellowship,  its  own  code,  understanding  and  secrets.  Hence  it 
is  that  the  imagination  has  a  supreme  role  in  the  neighborly 
relations  of  men.  As  social  processes  unite  men  in  imagina- 
tion, they  supply  the  basis  of  concord,  service  and  trust.  ,  .  . 
Reason  may  talk  of  social  solidarity,  and  economic  or  socio- 
logical analysis  may  show  us  how  intimately  all  men  are 
united;  the  catechism  may  appeal  to  intellect  and  tell  us  that 
mankind  of  every  description  is  our  neighbor.  But  only  they 
have  entrance  to  our  hearts  to  whom  imagination  gives  the 
passport;  only  they  are  neighbors  whom  imagination  accepts 
and  embraces,"^"^  The  work  of  reconstructing  human  brother- 
hood is  in  a  great  measure  the  work  of  the  imagination. 

The  objection  may  be  raised  here  that  although  Shelley's 
imagination  was  very  strong,  still  he  was  guilty  of  great  wrong 
to  Harriet.  In  reply  one  may  say  that  the  imagination  is  only 
one-half  the  mould  which  forms  the  perfect  man.  The  other 
half  is  made  up  of  reason  and  revealed  religion.  Where  these 
two  parts  of  the  mind  are  found  together  we  get  great  men. 
They  exist  side  by  side  in  the  saints.  A  man  may  know  all  about 
ascetical  theology,  or  all  about  his  profession,  but  if  he  has  not 
imagination  he  will  always  be  a  plodder.  To  come  more 
directly  to  our  difficulty,  Shelley  had  the  motive  power  of 
imagination  and  the  guiding  force  of  reason,  but  not  that  of 
revealed  religion.  The  result  was  that  he  went  off  at  a  tangent 
when  he  dealt  with  matrimony.  His  case  should  be  a  convinc- 
ing argument  to  women  at  least  that  Christianity  Is  necessary 
for  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  mankind.  In  so  far  as 
Shelley's  imagination  was  guided  by  the  light  of  reason,  he 
was  a  saint.    Trelawny  says  that  Shelley  stinted  himself  to 


'"^The  Catholic  World,  Vol.  87,  p.  744. 


CONCLUSION  1  "7 

bare  necessities,  and  then  often  lavished  the  money  saved  by 
unprecedented  self-denial  on  selfish  fellows  who  denied  them- 
selves nothing. 

Some  of  Shelley's  poetry  is  calculated  to  arouse  one's  anger 
and  hatred  of  wrong.  A  people  who  are  destitute  of  these 
emotions  are  fit  subjects  for  the  yoke.  As  long  as  there  are 
men  ready  to  take  advantage  of  another's  weakness;  as  long 
as  there  are  selfish  men  who  will  advance  themselves  at  the 
expense  of  others,  so  long  will  it  be  necessary  to  keep  alive  in 
men  the  spirit  of  hatred  of  injustice. 

The  difficulty  with  a  great  many  critics  of  Shelley  is  that 
they  confound  Shelley's  railing  at  the  evils  of  religion  and 
governments  with  railing  at  religion  and  government  itseli". 
In  places,  it  is  true,  he  would  seem  to  be  a  complete  anarchist, 
but  then  allowance  should  be  made  for  the  sweeping  gen 
eralizations  that  are  characteristic  of  poetry  and  radicalism. 
Those  passages  in  which  he  would  seem  to  condemn  all  religion 
and  government  should  deceive  no  one. 

No  doubt  it  is  wrong  to  brood  too  much  over  the  misery  of 
the  world.  One  misses  a  great  deal  if  one  sees  only  the  evil, 
and  never  sees  any  of  the  good  nor  experiences  any  of  the  joy 
of  life.  Extreme  pessimism  is  as  harmful  as  extreme  optimism. 
The  pessimism  that  lets  in  no  ray  of  hope  is  a  plague.  Such 
though  is  not  the  pessimism  of  Shelley.  His  pictures  of  the 
evils  of  society  are  illumined  by  the  reflection  from  the  happier 
state  of  society  that  is  about  to  come  to  pass. 

Shelley  would  do  away  with  government  and  authority. 
Surely,  some  would  say,  that  is  enough  to  discredit  him  as  a 
thinker  forever.  On  the  contrary,  it  shows  how  far  in  advance 
of  his  time  he  was;  it  shows  he  had  a  good  grasp  of  the 
sociological  principle  that  the  less  compulsion  and  the  more 
cooperation  under  direction  there  is  in  any  state  the  better  it 
is.  Shelley  never  meant  to  say  that  he  would  here  and  no^\ 
abolish  all  authority.  No  one  saw  more  clearly  than  he  that 
chaos  would  result  from  the  removal  of  authority  from  society 
as  at  present  constituted.  When  Shelley  writes  about  freedom 
from  authority  he  is  picturing  the  ideal  state  where  men  will 
be  just  and  wise.  He  very  likely  doubted  that  such  a  state  was 
possible  here  below,  still  he  thought  it  was  incumbent  on  every- 


1.38  CONCLt'SIOX 

body  to  strive  after  this  ideal.  He  wanted  men  to  so  perfect 
themselves,  to  so  act,  that  laws  and  policemen  would  become 
less  and  less  necessary. 

Shelley  may  not  have  the  "sense  of  established  facts,"  and 
may  be  unable  to  offer  suggestions  which  will  work  out  well  in 
practice,  but  he  does  infuse  a  higher  and  a  nobler  conception 
of  life  into  the  consciousness  of  a  people.  What  Wordsworth 
said  concerning  his  own  poems  is  true  of  the  works  of  Shelley. 
*'They  will  cooperate  with  the  benign  tendencies  in  human 
nature  and  society,  and  will,  in  their  degree,  be  efficacious  in 
making  men  wiser,  better,  and  happier." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  best  critical  edition  of  Shelley's  complete  work  is  that 
by  H.  B.  Forman  in  eight  volumes,  London,  1880.  Other  use- 
ful editions  of  the  poetical  works  are :  Professor  G.  E.  Wood- 
berry's,  four  volumes,  Boston,  1892;  Professor  Dowden's,  one 
volume,  London,  1900;  T.  Huchinson's,  Oxford,  1905;  and  W. 
M.  Rossetti's,  three  volumes,  London,  1881. 

For  an  account  of  the  earlier  publications  of  Shelley's  works 
consult  The  Shelley  Library:  an  Essay  in  BiUiography,  by  H. 
B.  Forman. 

The  most  comprehensive  and  authoritative  life  of  Shelley  is 
that  by  Professor  Dowden  in  two  volumes,  London,  1886. 

The  following  are  the  chief  authorities,  critical  and  bio- 
graphical, to  be  consulted : 

AcKERMANN,  R. :    (a)   Quellen  zu  Shelley's  Poetischen  Werlcen.    1890. 

(b)  Shelley's  Epipsychidion  und  Adonais.    1900. 

(c)  Prometheus  Unbound.  Kritische  textansgabe,  etc. 

1908. 
Allex,  Edith  L.  :  Shelley  Day  by  Day.   1910. 
Allen,  Leslie  H.:  Die  Personlichkeit  P.  B.  Shelley's.   1907. 
Angeli,  Helen  A.:   Shelley  and  His  Friends  in  Italy.    1911. 
Alexander,  W.  J.:   Select  Poems  of  Shelley. 
Axon,  W.  E.  :  Shelley's  Vegetarianism.   1891. 
Bates,  E.  S.:  A  Study  of  Shelley's  Drama.    The  Cenci. 
Belfast,  Earl  of:  Poets  and  Poetry  of  the  "Nineteenth  Century.    1852. 
Bennett,  D.:   The  World's  Sages.  Infidels  and  Thinkers.    1876. 
Bernthsen,  S.:  Der  Spi7iozismus  in  Shelley's  Weltanschatiung.    1900. 
BiAZi,  GxTiDo:  The  Last  Days  of  P.  B.  Shelley.   1898. 
Brailsford.  H.  N.:  Shelley,  Oodioin,  and  Their  Circle. 
Brown:    The  Prometheus  Unbound  of  Shelley. 

Brandes,  G.:  Main  Currents  in  Nineteenth  Century  Literature,  Vol.  IV. 
Brandl.  Samuel  T.:   Coleridge  und  die  Englische  Romantik.    1886. 
Brooke,  Stopford  A.:   Studies  in  Poetry.   1907. 
Btron,  May.:  A  Day  with  the  Poet  P.  B.  Shelley.    1910. 
Calvert,    G.    H.:     Coleridge,    Shelley.    Goethe,    Biographic    Aesthetic 

Studies.    1880. 
Carducci,  G.  :  Prometeo  Liberato,  Torino  Roma.    1894. 
Chevbillon,  T.  a.:   Etudes  Anglaises.    1901. 
Chiarini,  Giuseppe:    Ombre  e  Figure  Saggi  Critici.    1883. 
A.  Clutton-Brock :  Shelley;  the  Man  and  the  Poet,  1910. 
Courthope,  W.  J.:   The  Liberal  Movement  in  English  Literature.    1885. 

130 


140  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Chapman,  E.  M.:   English  Literature  and  Religion.    1800-1900. 

Clarke,  Miss  H.  A.:  Prometheus  Unbound. 

CoPELAND,  C.  T.:   Shelley,  P.  B.,  Vol.  IV.  Gateway  Series  Texts. 

CouETHOPE,  W.  J.:    A  History  of  English  Poetry,  Vol.  VI.    1910. 

Crashway,  Rose  M.:  Byron,  Shelley,  Keats  Prize  Essays.   1893. 

Darmesteter,  James:    Essais  de  Litterature  Anglaise.    1883. 

Dawson,  W.  J.:  Quest  and  Vision,  Essays  in  Life  and  Literature.   1886. 

Dell,  E.  E.:   Pictures  from  Shelley.     1892. 

De  Quinct,  Thomas:  Essays  on  the  Poets. 

Dibdin:  Reminiscences  of  a  Literary  Life.   1836. 

DowDEN,  Edward:    (a)   Transcripts  and  Studies.    1896. 

(b)   The  French  Revolution  and  English  Literature. 
1897. 
Dkeyer,  C:  Studier  og  Portraeter.   1901. 
Droop,  A.:  Die  Belesenheit,  P.  B.  Shelley.    1906. 
Druskowitz,  Dr.  Helene:   Shelley.    1884. 
Edgar,  P.:    A  Study  of  Shelley.  1899. 
Edmunds,  E.  W.  :  Shelley  and  His  Poetry.   1911. 

Ellis,  F.  S.:  Alphabetical  table  of  contents  adapted  to  Forman's.   1888. 
Elsner:   Shelley's  abhangigkeit,  Y.  Godwin's  Political  Justice.    1906. 
Elton,  C.  T.:    An  Account  of  Shelley's  Visits  to  France.   1894. 
Garnett,  R.  :   Essays  of  an  ex-Librarian.     1901. 
GiLLARDON,  H.:  Shelley's  einicirkung  auf  Byron.    1898. 
Gribble,  Francis:   Shelley.    1911. 
Gummere.  Francis  B.:  Democracy  and  Poeti'y. 
Godwin,  Parke:   Out  of  the  Past. 
Guthrie,  W.  N.:    Modern  Poet  Prophets.    1897. 
Hancock,  A.  E.:   The  French  Revolution  and  English  Poets.    1899. 
Hogg,  T.  J.:  The  Life  of  P.  B.  Shelley.   1906. 
Hunt,  Leigh:    (a)  Autobiography.   1866. 

(b)  Imagination  and  Fancy. 
Inghen,  Robert:   The  Letters  of  P.  B.  Shelley.   1909. 
Jack,  A.  A.:    Shelley:    An  Essay.     1904. 
Jeafferson,  J.  C:    The  Real  Shelley.  2  vols.    1885. 
Johnson  C.  F.:   Three  Americans  and  Three  Englishmen.    1886. 
Kingslet,  Charles:  Works,  Vol.  XX.    1880. 
Kegan  p.  C:   William  Godwin;   His  Friends,  etc. 
Knight:  Ausg.  V.  Wordsworth's  Poetischen.    Werken. 
Koszul,  a.:  La  Jeunesse  de  Shelley.    1910. 
Kroder,  Abmin:  Shelley's  Verskunst  dargestellt  von  Dr.  Armin  Kroder. 

1903. 
LococK,  C.  D.:   An    examination    of    the    Shelley    manuscript    in    the 

Bodleian  Library.    1903. 
Maurer,  Otto:   Shelley  und  die  Frauen.     1906. 
McCarthy,  D.  F.:  Shelley's  Early  Life.    1872. 
MacDonald,  George:    The  Imagination  and  other  Essays.   1883. 
Masson,  D.  :  Wordsioorth,  Shelley,  Keats,  and  other  Essays.   1874. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  1  1^  1 

I^fA^•FOBD,  Eimer:    Die  pcrsonliclicn  Bcxiehungen  zicischcn  Byron  and 

Shelleys'  Eine  Kritische  studie.    1911. 
Mabshall,  Mrs.:  Life  of  Mary  W.  Shelley.   1890.   3  vols. 
Mayor,  J.  B.:    Classification  of  Shelley's  metres. 
Miller,  B.:    Leigh  Hunt's  Relations  with  Byron  and  Shelley.   1910. 
Manoi:ni,  D.:  P.  B.  S.  Note  biographice  con  una  scelta  di  liriche  tradotte 

in  Italiano,  citta  di  Castelio.   1892. 
Marshall,  Mrs.  J.:  Mary  Wollstonecraft  Shelley,  2  vols.    1889. 
Medwin,  Thomas:    The  Life  of  P.  B.  Shelley,  1847. 
MiDDLETON,  C.  S.:  Shelley  and  His  Writings,  2  vols.   1858. 
Moir,  D.  M.:  Sketches  of  the  Literature  of  the  past  half  century.   1851. 
Moore,  H.:  Mary  W.  Shelley,  1886. 
Monti,  G.  :  Studi  Critici. 
Payne,  W.  M.:   The  Greater  English  Poets  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

1907. 
Peacock,  T.  L.:  Letters  to  P.  B.  Shelley,  1910. 

Memoirs    of  Shelley. 
Phelps,  Wm.  L.:   The  Beginnings  of  the  English  Romantic  Movement. 
Philvrete,  Charles:  Etudes  sur  la  Litterature  et  les  moeurs  de  VAn- 

gleterre  au  XIX  siecle. 
PoLiDORi,  J.  W.:  The  Diary  of  Polidori  Relating  to  Shelley. 
Rabbe,  Felix:  Shelley;  the  Man  and  the  Poet.   1887. 
RiCHTER,  H.:  P.  B.  Shelley.    1898. 
RossETTi,  Lucy  M.:  Mrs.  Shelley.    1890. 
RossETTi,  "W.  M.:    A  Memoir  of  Shelley.   1888. 

Shelley's  Prometheus  Unbound  Considered  as  a  Poem. 
Sai-t,  H.  S.:  p.  B.  Shelley,  Poet  and  Pioneer.   1896. 
Schuyler,  E.:    Shelley  with  Byron  in  his  Italian  Influences. 
Scott,  R.  P.:    The  Place  of  Shelley  Among  the  Poets  of  His  Time.   1878. 
Scxn)DER,  V.  D.:  Prometheus  Unbound,  1910. 

The   Life    of    the    Spirit   in    Modern   English    Poets, 
Shelley. 
Sharp,  W.:  Life  of  Shelley,  Great  Writers  (bibliography).   1887. 
Shawcross,  J.:  Shelley's  Literary  and  Philosophical  Criticism.  1909. 
Shelley,  P.  B.:    Defence  of  Poetry,  Br.  essay.   1911. 
Shelley,  P.  B.:  II  Convito.    Editore,  Adolf o  de  Bosis,  libro  X-XI. 
Shelley,  J.  G.:   Shelley  Memorials  from  Authentic  Sources. 
The  Shelley  Society  Papers,  Including  the  following: 

(a)  Aveling:    Shelley  and  Socialism. 

(b)  Blind  Mathilde:  Shelley's  View  of  Nature  Compared  icith 

Darwin's.    1886. 

(c)  Browning,  Robert:   Essay  on  Shelley.    1888. 

(d)  Dillon,  A.:    Shelley's  Philosophy  of  Love.    Part  II.   1891. 

(e)  Garnett,  R.:    Shelley  and  Lord  Beaconsfield.   1888. 

(f)  Parkes,  W.  K.:  Shelley's  Faith.    1891. 
Shexley  Society:  Notebook  of  the  Shelley  Society. 
Shelley,  P.  B.:  Notebook  of  P.  B.  Shelley.    1911. 


142  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Slicer,  T.  R.:  p.  B.  Shelley,  an  Appreciation.    1903. 

Smith,  Geohge  B.:   Shelley,  a  Critical  Biography.    1877. 

SoTHERAtJ,  C:  SheUey  as  a  Philosopher  and  Reformer.   1870. 

Stoddard,  R.  H.:    Anecdote  Biography  of  P.  B.  Shelley.    1877. 

Symonds,  H.  a.:    Shelley  (in  English  Men  of  Letters).  1878. 

Sweet,  Henry:  In  An  English  Miscellany  Presented  to  Dr.  Furnivall. 

Oxford.    1901. 
Taylor,  G.  R.  :    Mary    Wollstonecraft.     A    Study    in    Economics    and 

Romance.    1911. 
Thomas,  Edward:    Feminine  Influence  on  the  Poets.   1911. 
Thompson,  J.:  Biog.  and  Critical  Studies  (Shelley's  religious  opinions). 
Thompson,  F.:  Shelley:  an  Essay.   1909. 
Til,  Hermann:  Metrische  untersuchungen  zu  den  blankversdichtutigen 

Shelley.    1902. 
Trelawny,  E.  J.:  Recollection  of  the  Last  Days  of  Shelley  and  Byron. 

1906. 
Trent,  W.  P.:   The  Authority  of  Criticism.   1899. 
Todhunter,  J.:  A  Study  of  Shelley.   1880. 
White,  W.:  Anecdote  Biography  of  P.  B.  Shelley.  1877. 
Commemorazione  di  P.  B.  Shelley  in  Roma.    1893. 
Young,  H.  B.:  Dissertation  on  the  Life  and  Novels  of  T.  L.  Peacock. 

1904. 
Wagner,  W.:  Shelley's  The  Cenci,  analyse,  quellen  und  innerer  zusam- 

menhang,  etc.    1903. 
Ward,  T.  H.:    The  English  Poets.    Vol.  IV.    1883. 
Ward,  Wilfrid:  Aubrey  De  Vere:  a  Memoir. 
WooDBERRY,  George  E.:   The  Torch.    1912. 
Yeats,  W.  B.:    Good!  and  Evil.  Vol.  6. 
Zettneb,  Hans:  Shelley's  Mythendichtung.   1902. 


BIOGRAPHY  143 


BIOGRAPHY 


The  author  of  this  dissertation  was  born  in  Glassburn, 
Nova  Scotia,  November  7,  1881.  He  attended  the  public  school 
there  until  the  fall  of  189G,  when  he  entered  St.  Francis 
Xavier  University,  Antigonish,  N.  S.  In  November,  1900,  he 
entered  the  Propaganda  College,  Borne,  and  was  ordained  a 
priest  in  1904.  The  years  1908  and  1909  he  devoted  largely  to 
the  study  of  English  literature,  and  in  July,  1910,  passed  the 
preliminary  post-graduate  examinations  in  English  at  St. 
Francis  Xavier  University.  In  October  of  the  same  year  he 
entered  the  Catholic  University  of  America,  where  he  pursued 
studies  in  English  under  Professors  Lennox  and  Hemelt;  in 
sociology  under  Dr.  Kerby,  and  in  economics  under  Dr. 
O'Hara.  To  these  gentlemen  and  to  the  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop 
Shahan  for  kindly  encouragement  he  wishes  to  acknowledge  a 
debt  of  gratitude. 


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